Kid of the Hunt
by JamoonX
Summary: An accidental leap of faith forever changes the young life of Naruto Uzumaki, and finally lets him be the descendant of not only one Hokage. But does he still want to become a Hokage? NaruTsu
1. The rivers will run red

_A/N: Hello guys. So, as promised, here is my new story 'Kid of the Hunt'. It will be a Naruto x Tsunade story, as I told you. Plus, unfortuneately, I won't make a schedule in which I update this story frequently, I'll do it basically whenever I feel like it. Anyways, welcome to 'Kid of the Hunt'._

"CHIDORI!!!!", a young boy with long, white hair, grey skin and red eyes screamed, standing next to a waterfall, letting his voice echo throughout a forest.

"Graaaagh!!!", another young boy with unruly blond hair, cerulean blue eyes and unique whisker marks on his cheeks yelled, being pierced by the black lightning torrent right through his chest, very close from directly hitting his heart.

The scene was a horrifying sight. The dark fighter stood with one arm through his enemy, and the other part holding his enemies' right shoulder, locking him in place, just waiting for the blonde to cry and beg him for mercy, or once again to beg him return to the village he just defected from: Konohagakure.

The Village Hidden in the Leaf, a place he despised. It was a pathetic piece of land, full of weaklings, crybabies and annoying banshees. The boy, a young Uchiha called Sasuke, got a very tempting offer from the leader of the Village Hidden in the Sound, Orochimaru. An offer to train him, give him the power he longs for and deserves, to be able to finally avenge his clan and wipe out the bane of his existence, Itachi Uchiha.

Of course though, the village and the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade Senju, had a problem with him leaving and sent out a group of ninja to retrieve him. Namely Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Neji, Rock Lee and Naruto. While the most ninja were distracted by the elite of Orochimaru, the Sound Four, Naruto followed Sasuke to the fated place they are now standing at: The Valley of the End. Between the stone eyes of the Shodaime Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and the first Uchiha, Madara, now two Genin stood, or rather one, while the other one was still lifted in the air by a now non-electrified hand.

Sasuke was surprised by the amount of power the supposed Dead Last had, especially after he formed a Rasengan and used Kyuubi's chakra, turning him into a fierce, animalistic warrior. Though still, the self-proclaimed avenger was in for the biggest surprise yet.

Naruto slowly lifted his gaze to look into the traitors' red Sharingan eyes, and much to the Uchiha's surprise, Naruto didn't cry, or begged for anything or just instantly died. No.

He smiled.

The only more suprising thing than that was the words that he muttered hoarsely.

"Thank you."

The warrior in his Curse Mark Second State was briefly speechless, but then answered.

"For what, dobe?"

"For ending my existence."

Even with a venomous seal poisoning his thoughts, the traitor was visibly surprised by his answer. The hyperactive idiot, with his eternally lasting, shit-eating grin, was grateful that somebody killed him? Said knucklehead interrupted his thoughts.

"I have finally fulfilled my purpose. Everyone back in Konoha made it very clear that I'm worth nothing. I'm not allowed to eat, to be trained, and certainly not to be liked, loved, or appreciated."

He then tilted his head a bit downwards, and coughed up a little load of blood, which landed on the floor. With his last ounce of power, he looked back into the avengers eyes, with tears forming in his eyes, and an even brighter, grateful smile on his face, while a free flowing line of blood left his mouth.

"I hate this village as much as it hates me, and I am finally able to let go. The only thing that makes me happier than to die, is knowing that you'll pass out from chakra exhaustion, and someone will drag you back to this hellhole. Congrats, you deserve each other. Everyone will be relieved. Kakashi has noone that expects to be trained every day, Sakura won't have me begging her for dates, and you won't have me standing in your way. You'll never have to endure the pranking demon dead last anymore, sorry for bothering you all with my existence."

His last words would be something the Uchiha would not forget, while Naruto looked deeper into his eyes, and placed his hand on the avengers' shoulder in an almost brotherly way. These words were:

"Thank you, Sasuke. Today, you turned the world into a truly happier place."

Not able to endure the sight any longer, especially seeing the severity of his gaping wound and his already deadly bloodloss, Sasuke pulled out his hand, letting Naruto fall backwards, straight down the waterfall.

 _This is the end_

The last thing Naruto felt was the air running through his hair and the water splashing around him. After looking a last time into his rivals' eyes, he closed his peacefully.

 _Hold your breath and count to ten_

Sasuke watched the lifeless body of his former teammate accelerate towards the lake at the bottom of the Valley of the End. He dropped to his legs, and clutched his hair.

 _Feel the earth move and then_

 _Hear my heart burst again_

His now aching red Sharingan eyes released a few tears, while he continued to watch the corpse of the blonde flow down together with the waterfall.

 _For this is the end_

 _I've drowned and dreamed this moment_

The body of the jinchuuriki, seemingly in a deep slumber, painted the water from the cascade red, coating him more and more in his own, now watery blood, until he landed into the lake with a resonating *splash* sound.

 _So overdue, I owe them_

 _Swept away, I'm stolen_

His body went down the lake without a single move. His mind was already blank, his senses dull. The only thing holding him barely alive was Kyuubi, but the struggle against water was almost pointless.

 _Let the sky fall, when it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall, and face it all together_

An unknown force dragged him into a little cave-like hole at the bottom of the lake. Meanwhile, Sasuke felt himself succumbing to the chakra exhaustion, and passed out, lying besides the torrent of water

 _Let the sky fall, when it crumbles_

 _We will stand tall, and face it all together_

 _At skyfall_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _In the forest nearby, a few minutes ago_

"Come on, Pakkun, we have to go faster!", a grey-haired, masked man yelled, while running towards the direction his summon told him to go to.

"I'm going as fast as I can, Kakashi!", the dog summon yelled back.

Then, a terrifying noise filled the man's ears. Very faintly in the distance, he could hear the chirping sound of one thousand birds.

 _'No, Kami, please let me be on time. Please.',_ he thought while running even faster.

Then, he reached the place destined for the boys' encounter. Very easily, even through all the rain, he could spot the long, white hair of his former student. Running over to him, he saw it was the by Orochimaru's Cursed Seal deformed, and now unconscious body of Sasuke Uchiha.

"He seems to have nothing serious besides his chakra exhaustion, so he's just unconscious.", Kakashi muttered, checking the boy's body for any injury and feeling his pulse.

The Copy Ninja turned towards his summon, and saw his sad, downcast face. He knew what that meant, but he didn't want to believe it.

"Pakkun... where is he?"

"I can smell a strong scent of his blood, meaning he bled a lot. His trace... leads down the waterfall."

Kakashi immediately went to look down the waterfall, and saw the sickening pool of blood spreading into all directions of the lake and down the river.

Shunshining to the side of the lake, he looked into it, stuffing his face into the water. But besides a cloud of Naruto's blood, he couldn't find him.

His summon followed him, and spoke.

"Kakashi, I have no trace of him, and this blood is already a few minutes old, and it leads down the river. At this point, he died from bloodloss or drowned because of the rivers' pressure and speed, and his body is already out of our reach. I'm sorry."

Kakashi stood up, took the body of Sasuke, and walked back to Konoha, an empty gaze plastered on his face, while he dispelled his summon. Knowing that Sasuke was fine besides a few bruises, Kakashi was in no real rush to reach Konoha. He silently cried for the student that failed and now was placed on his shoulder, and the student he failed and was now already far away, his corpse unfound.

"I'm sorry sensei, I am a failure."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Konoha, a few days later_

Noise, noise everywhere. That was the current situation in front of the Konoha gates. Everyone was loudly discussing about the three still missing ninja of the Leaf: Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto. Though most concern was for the first two. Only a the remainders of the Konoha 11 and their senseis, the Konohamaru Corps., Iruka, Jiraiya, the Hokage and her friend Shizune talked about Naruto. Even though he annoyed them all, close to the point of insanity, he had a place in all their hearts.

Two days earlier, Lee, Neji, Chouji and Kiba were returned to the village. Kiba and Lee only had minor injuries, while Neji and Chouji both were in critical condition because of their intense fights, and Chouji especially for the use of the Akimichi Red Pill. Due to a medicine developed by Tsunade though, even he could survive and was currently able to recover in the hospital, along with the others.

"Guys look, someone is coming!", a bun-haired girl called Tenten yelled to everyone, quickly getting their attention to focus on the distant figure closing in.

After a while everyone noticed it was Kakashi. Immediately, everyone ran into his direction, noticing that he appereared to have all time in the world.

When they reached him, everyone's gaze went to the limp figure on Kakashi's shoulder. Their eyes, particularly of the Sannin, Ino and Sakura widenend in horror.

"That's...", Sakura began in a whisper.

"Sasuke-kun..", Ino finished in a similar quiet voice.

"Is he alright, Kakashi-sensei? It's only because of this Curse Mark he looks like that, right?", Sakura said in a desperate voice.

Kakashi did not even bother to answer her, to even look at her. His empty gaze just went straight forward, his legs carrying him to the hospital without a hurry.

"Yes, but you need to accept the mark before it can fully transform you. Whatever Sasuke did, he did it with his own free will.", Jiraiya explained to the group of now too silent civilians, the Konoha 11 and the other ninja.

"Kakashi, where's Naruto-kun?", the Hokage's assistant Shizune asked.

Hearing the name made Kakashi wince slightly, but he still walked forwards, whispering to himself.

"First Obito, now him."

Gai, Kurenai and Asuma immediately knew what that meant, and looked down onto the ground, closing their eyes in silent sympathy.

"Kakashi...", Tsunade repeated, but already had an idea what his silence and visible depression meant, though she did not want to believe it.

Kakashi gave the body of Sasuke to a few medics which then took off to the hospital. The civilians and other shinobi already went home, disgusted by the fact that Sasuke wasn't influenced, but actually intended to defect to a known enemy of Konoha on his own free will.

Kakashi briefly turned to the remaining Konoha 11, their senseis, Jiraiya, Iruka, the Hokage and her assistant, and shook his head, a clear message behind it.

"No, that can't be. Nii-san can't be dead!", Konohamaru cried while hugging his friends Moegi and Udon, which were crying as well.

Everyone was dead silent, not wanting to believe the news. Sakura felt sick and held her stomach protectively, with Ino doing the same thing. Tenten went to hug her sensei, who could only lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. Hinata burst out in silent tears, Iruka, Jiraiya and Shizune were all on the verge of tears as well, while Tsunade had no visible reaction at all.

Though on the inside, everyone besides Iruka, Hinata and Shizune felt truly devastated not only for his death, but also knowing how they treated him. The Jounin senseis never took him seriously, yet alone train him properly. Tenten, along with all of Konoha 11, even those in hospital, never really accepted him or his skills, besides Lee, who treated him as a rival, and Shikamaru, Shino and Choujj, who treated him neutrally, and Hinata, who was too shy to speak to him. Sakura, Ino and Tsunade always, whenever he went onto their nerves with a silly joke, asking for a date in Sakura's case, or in general begging for attention, punched him into his head and sent him flying into a random direction. Now though, everyone missed his foxy smile and loud voice.

 _'Sakura-chan, don't worry, I'll bring back Sasuke, whatever it takes. That's my promise of a lifetime, and I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way!'_

"Whatever it takes... Why did you have to take that so seriously, idiot..." Sakura cried silently, while Ino went to her and hugged her for comfort.

 _'No, Naruto-kun.',_ Hinata thought in mute despair.

"Ino... tell your father to come to Sasuke's room in the prison part of the hospital tomorrow at 8 in the morning.", the Godaime Hokage ordered in a forced calm voice, masking her emotions.

"H-hai, Hokage-sama.", Ino choked out.

"Tsunade..." Jiraiya started, but was interrupted by her.

"You Jiraiya, go to him immediately. You have to counter his Curse Mark, and try to lock it away.", she ordered.

"But are you.."

"That's an order, Jiraiya!"

Nodding silently in defeat and sighing, Jiraiya went after the medics and Sasuke.

"Wait, Tsunade-sama...", Shizune said in hurried, and still sobbing voice.

But it was too late. In a swirl of leaves, she disappeared, leaving everyone behind to their thoughts. Then, for the first time, they heard Kakashi's voice.

"I would suggest everyone goes home and rests, preferably with a friend or with your parents. I will talk to the Hokage about a funeral for Naruto soon."

The word 'funeral' caused Ino, Sakura, Hinata and the Konohamaru Corps. to choke out a loud sob, nearly causing them to vomid. Kakashi then, too, left in a swirl of leaves.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Hokage tower_

If someone would now stand in front of the Hokage room, he or she would hear three noises: The sound of glass hitting something, sounds of gulping, and sounds of sniffing and sobbing. The Godaime Hokage engaged in her favourite activity, drinking sake like a black hole.

The sobbing woman already lost persons precious to her, she thought she had gotten used to that. Her lover and her brother already died, and she thought that made her strong. But now, the blonde hyperactive prankster, her reason to believe in the Will of Fire again, the reason she was sitting in this office, was gone, forever.

And what did she do? She wasn't strong enough to just accept it and proceed with her life. No, she barely even managed to escape the others without crying her eyes out. The moment she entered her office though, her water gates broke as much as she broke.

She looked at the picture on her table from the time she was retrieved by Naruto and Jiraiya. In the middle of Tsunade and Shizune, Naruto stood there with his painfully bright grin while making a 'peace symbol' with his hand, while Jiraiya openly watched her breasts.

"Why gaki, why did you have to leave me, your baa-chan?", she muttered to herself.

The first time without asking for permission, Shizune entered the office of the Hokage and went straight for Tsunade.

Immediately, she spun around in her chair to look outside her window, asking:

"What are you doing here Shizune? I have work to do and sake to drink.", she formulated with a few sniffs in between her words.

Worldlessly, Shizune walked over to her and turned back her chair, so that the surprised Hokage looked her in the watery but determined eyes.

And then, she hugged her. Hugged her as tightly as humanly possible.

"What-"

"Shut up, Tsunade."

That surprised her even more. Shizune never dared to be disrespectful to her, neither by just walking in nor, especially not, by talking to her like that. She interrupted her thoughts.

"I know you're hurt. You are as everybody else is. So stop trying to do this on your own, noone should endure something like this alone. You already did twice too often.", Shizune explained while crying her eyes out.

Tsunade struggled half-heartedly at first, but eventually hugged back and cried deep into Shizune's shoulder.

"Why? What did he ever do wrong? Why couldn't I die instead of him? An already broken soul in exchange for such a young and alive one."

"Don't say that Tsunade, he wouldn't want to hear you say something like that."

"But I miss him already, Shizune. He is the reason I even am here. He never became Hokage. He saved my life and he saved my existence, and I did nothing in return for him. I just miss him, Shizune."

"I know, Tsunade, I do, too."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Valley of the End_

 ** _Kit, wake up. KIT!"_**

"Huh? Oh, it's you, Kurama. Wait, what happened? I thought I'm dead."

 ** _"Apparently, someone saved you and dragged you into an underground cave. Currently, both your saviour and I are healing you. You should wake up... right now."_**

And in that exact moment, he woke up, lying with his back on a stone ground, looking at the cave's wall.

"You mock me, Shinigami. I'm not even allowed to die now?"

 _"Your time has yet to come, young shinobi."_

Following the voice, he saw the outline of a human looking figure, although everything of this person glowed in a light blue colour. He had long black hair, and wore a metal battle armor, coloured red and black. His face was covered in strange green marks.

"Who are you?"

 _"I am the protector of the temple ahead of you, the spirit of Hashirama Senju."_

"Hashirama Senju? You mean the Shodaime Hokage?"

 _"Yes. When I was amongst the living, I built a hidden temple right here, at the Valley of the End. When the time comes, a descendant of a Hokage, or a Hokage himself should be sent out to find this temple with my knowledge in it."_

"But I'm neither the Hokage, nor the descendent of a Hokage."

 _"Yes young one, you are. My spirit only comes to help one of those people. As far as I can read your bloodline, you're the son and therefore a descendant of the Yondaime Hokage and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki. I can see her bloodline in you, too."_

"The... Yondaime is my father? The hero of Konoha is my father and noone bothered to tell me?", Naruto shouted angrily at the ghost in front of him.

 _"Yes, young shinobi. You are a descendant, and therefore have access to my temple. I can say that you have an unawakened bloodline ability, which is called 'Chakra Chains'. I can only tell you have it, though. How to activate and use them, though, I cannot tell. This will be your responsibility. Now, do you wish to accept the knowledge from this temple? I must warn you, ahead of you lies a path of work and pain, the techniques here are difficult and it takes a lifetime to perfect them. Do you understand?"_

'Maybe this is a good idea. After that, I can go somewhere else, and maybe build up a new life. Far away from Konoha.'

"Yes, I understand, it's not like I have something to lose now anyways."

 _"Very well, follow me then.",_ Hashirama said, and turned towards the entrance of the temple.

 ** _"Wait a second, kit. I have something for you"._** Kyuubi said while spawning a scroll in front of Naruto.

"What's that?", Naruto said, picking it up.

"I-is that...?"

 ** _"Yes, kit, it is."_**

"Awesome, thanks a thousand times, Kurama! And wait a second."

 ** _"What is it, kit?"_**

"Whenever I use your chakra, my eyes turn red and slitted, right? So could you please give me enough chakra so my eyes stay like that permanently?"

 ** _"Very well, kit."_** , the Kyuubi said, while infusing Naruto with enough of his power to turn his eyes red and slitted. Since the amount of chakra needed was insignificant, the transformation was able to be held permanently.

"Thank you again, Kurama."

 _"Is something the matter? Are there any preparations you need to take?",_ the ghost asked the now red-eyed jinchuuriki.

"Go ahead, I only have one more thing to do." Naruto said, while Hashirama nodded, continuing to walk into the temple.

Naruto took off his forehead protector, remembering the day Iruka gave it to him. He had been so proud to have it given to him, but day after day, he felt more and more sick looking at the all to familiar sign. Taking a kunai, Naruto slashed through the hitai-ate, and put it on again, permanently signalizing his disconnection from his own personal hell.

 _A/N: So guys, hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new story. Reviews are always welcome!_


	2. AN: A lot of questions

So, since there already are a lot of messages, I'll quickly answer a few things I think are necessary to know

1) I said Shodaime since it's Sandaime, Yondaime etc. and I though it would still be like that. So to not mix it up, I won't change that one. Still, the word probably won't appear that often anyways.

2) Kakashi needed a few days, yes. I simply said that without thinking about it too much, besides saying that Kakashi wasn't in any hurry to return to Konoha.

3) In this fic, Naruto already knows the existence of the Kyuubi and his name, sorry that I left that so open.

4) Naruto's eyes are NOT permanently red as in him losing his blue eyes. He just asked the Kyuubi to constantly give chakra to his eyes so they stay red. And since he only gets chakra so that his eyes turn red, the amount of chakra needed is indeed insignificant

5) I don't know what I'll do with Sasuke yet, tbh. I mostly write on instinct, with a basic plan on what will happen in the story, so I'll see what I find most suiting.

6) Sorry to mix up descendant and ascendant, I genuinely did not know that. Though, can anyone explain why it won't update the word in my summary? I tried it multiple times, but nothing happens.

7) Yes, to make the Hiraishin a bloodline was a mistake, and I corrected that one. Thanks for the advice.

Anyways, thanks for the numerous messages already.


	3. The Beginning

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the second chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Since someone mentioned it, I'll say: Yes, I know author's notes are rather for the beginning of a chapter, and not an own chapter, but I just felt the questions I was asked under the first chapter had to be answered immediately, so I quickly wrote a chapter with only the answers to those questions. Anyways, enjoy the new chapter, and please leave as many comments as possible._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Konoha hospital, prison wing_

"Good morning, I'm assigned to the room of Sasuke Uchiha."

"May I have your name, please?"

"Inoichi Yamanaka."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Yamanaka. He's in room 321, down the corridor, the third door left."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Inoichi followed his instructions and went to the room, where he was greeted by the sight of the Hokage and her assistant, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Iruka and the whole of Konoha 11, with Sasuke instead of Naruto.

"Ah, hello Inoichi. I'm glad you could make it in time.", the Hokage started.

"No problem, Hokage-sama. But what exaxtly is my task?"

Tsunade closed her eyes and breathed deeply once, and looked at the blue eyes of the Yamanaka clan head again.

"Whereas you can see, Sasuke was successfully retrieved from his defection... the whereabouts of Naruto are still unknown. We need to know exactly what happened in their fight. Thus, you will lead us through his memories, and show us the events."

Inoichi nodded in understanding, and looked at his next target closely. He saw the empty look in his eyes, that ignored every movement and every sound whatsoever, and simply gazed at the wall.

"Has anyone yet tried to talk to him?", Inoichi asked curiously.

"Yes, we all did, but he's completely unresponsive. Since he has woken up, he hasn't spoken a single word, with none of us.", Kakashi replied.

"And do you think you're in any physical shape to be here? From what I've heard you were pretty badly injured.", Inoichi asked the now already standing Lee, Chouji, Kiba and Neji.

"Yosh, my flames of youth are already burning again!", Lee shouted in enthusiasm, causing everyone around him to sweatdrop.

"Alright then. Everyone who wants to follow into his mind, please touch me or someone who already touches me."

Everyone touched Inoichi, clearly interested in the events from the Valley of the End.

"Ok, then let's go. **Mind Transfer Jutsu!** ", the clan head told, while all of the bodies in the room went limp and followed him into Sasuke's mindscape.

 _"Now, everyone please stay with me. It may take a while until I find the correct memory." Inoichi informed everyone, who nodded in understanding._

" _Here, I found one where Sasuke and Naruto seem to be in, and there is a fight. Let's go.", the mindwalker_ _told the group of shinobi._

 _Upon arriving in the memory, they saw a scene from not too long ago: Gaara in his giant Shukaku form. Though, it was surprising to see Naruto standing on a gigantic frog._

 _"What the hell is that thing?", Kiba asked the stunned group._

 _"That's the toad boss summon, Gamabunta. I trained Naruto to summon him.", Jiraiya told the group in response._

 _"Impressive that he was already able to do that.", Tsunade muttered in awe, with everyone nodding._

 _Then, they saw how Naruto landed a quite hard headbutt into Gaara's face, causing his sand defense to break, and the clawed grip on Sakura to do as well._

 _"W-wait, he saved me? I thought that Sasuke-kun saved me.", Sakura stuttered out._

 _"Well, it doesn't seem like that.", Kakashi said while bowing his head down._

 _Sakura knew how much she laughed at Naruto whenever he told her that he saved her. Now to find out that it actually was the truth, and she never got to thank him, left her heartbroken and sobbing. Ino, again, comforted her._

 _"Daddy, that's the wrong memory. Please find the real one."_

 _"Yes, I'm already at it, sweetie.", Inoichi answered, opening what he thought was the correct memory._

 _Now, they actually found the correct memory, with Sasuke and Naruto panting, while Sasuke charged a black Chidori._

 _After all the events from Chapter 1_

 _The group was left behind speechless, everyone sulking for themselves._

 _"I think that's enough.", the head Yamanaka whispered while transferring everyone back into the real world._

After everyone, including Sasuke, had woken up from the mindreading, the room was filled with awkward silence and silent tears, openly shed by everyone except Neji, Shikamaru and Shino, who tried to compose themselves. Though, crying or not, everyone shared the same thought:

'I'm sorry Naruto, I could've been there for you.'

"My flames of youth have been extinguished. But for the sake of my eternal rival, Naruto-kun, I will let them burn brightly once again!", Lee declared, though without his usual energy.

"I have failed. The first time as a leader, and I have failed.", Shikamaru muttered to himself, gripping his hair while being comforted by Chouji.

"No, I have failed as a teacher. I favourited Sasuke, hoping that he would not lose the already little connection he had to the village, and look where it brought us. I taught Sasuke an assassination technique he then used to kill his own comrade with. Obito was right, I betrayed my comrade, I am lower than trash.", Kakashi muttered, sulking for himself.

"No, I have failed him. If I would've trained him better, he would be here now. I should've taken care of him, for Minato's sake.", Jiraiya whispered to noone in particular.

"We should have." Tsunade added.

"Minato's sake? What do you mean? And what was that about a demon Naruto talked about?", Neji asked curiously, getting everyone's attention.

"Since he is dead, I guess there is no use in hiding it any longer." Tsunade started and sighed. "The Kyuubi that attacked Konoha once was never killed by the Yondaime. He was sealed into his newborn son, Naruto. Noone was allowed to know that, Naruto's father had many enemies, and that would've put him in great danger. If you ever wondered why Naruto was glared at, ridiculed or even attacked, the Kyuubi is the reason."

Everyone teared up even more at the added information, and thought of how they treated him, fully understanding where his impression that everybody would be relieved by his death would come from.

'And here I was, talking about my horrible destiny.', Neji thought.

Kiba meanwhile patted a whimpering Akamaru, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Shizune, Hinata and Iruka simply cried, while the others now made plans.

"Sasuke Uchiha" Tsunade started, the name dripping with venom and turning to the still unmoving avenger "for your crimes against Konoha and a Konoha shinobi, you will be sent into a prison for the rest your life. Your chakra and Sharingan will be sealed eternally, and your mouth too, so noone has to hear your traitorous voice ever again. Remember well how this hospital looks like, because this will be the last thing you see before your cell. ANBU!" Tsunade roared as two masked shinobi appeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Take this traitorous, despicable, weak, snake-loving excuse of a shinobi into the deepest and best protected prison cell you can find. Seal his chakra, Sharingan and his mouth. Got it?", Tsunade ordered, while the two Anbu nodded and took off with the arrested Uchiha.

"Hey, what happened to bro? His summoning contact broke!", a suddenly appearing Gamakichi asked Jiraiya.

"Hello Gamakichi. We should go to Gamabunta together to talk about Naruto. I...think he would like to know the whereabouts of Naruto as well.", Jiraiya responded.

Gamakichi picked up his sad tone and nodded, leaving together with Jiraiya in a puff of smoke.

"I...have to go back to the academy.", Iruka said emotionlessly, not fully believing the situation.

"I will go to the memorial stone. Please Hokage-sama, don't assign me or Sakura with missions too soon." Tsunade nodded while Kakashi left.

"Yosh, I will run one thousand laps around Konoha, in honour of Naruto ." Lee shouted while he already took off.

"I-I will train! I want to b-become strong like N-naruto was, his nindo will l-live on me!", the shy Hyuuga Heiress exclaimed in tears, running home.

Besides Sakura, Tsunade and Shizune, everybody else left, most without saying a word.

"He hates the village, Shizune. I was there the whole time, his love for the village brought me here and I couldn't figure out that he hated it.", Tsunade said disbelievingly, to Shizune and to herself.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama, I should've noticed as well.", Shizune replied.

"Hokage-sama." Sakura began, getting the Hokage's attention "Please, make your apprentice. After I now lost Naruto-kun, him thinking that I didn't like him at all, I want to get stronger. I want to be strong enough to protect the people precious to me, so that something like that won't ever happen again."

Tsunade thought for a moment, and nodded. "I will make you suffer through the worst kind of pain ever, perhaps even worse than that one now. If you manage to survive that, then you will be my apprentice."

"Thank you, Hokage-shishou, I won't let you down."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Konoha cemetery, 1 week later_

"Hello, dear people of Konoha. Today, we say our goodbyes to a fellow comrade every person in this village had the honour of meeting, Naruto Uzumaki.", Tsunade said, trying to hold in her own share of tears.

"This little kid was the fiercest personification of the Will of Fire I ever saw. He held an undying respect for this village and its ninja. Unfortunately, the constant hate from this village turned him into a depressed boy, who was happy to finally die and 'fulfill his purpose'.", Tsunade choked out as everyone turned their head down in shame.

"So at least in death, he shall get the honour and respect he deserves. Everyone will miss you, I will miss you, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, son of the Yondaime and hero of Konoha. At least in death, he will be next to his parents, as I'm sure all of you wondered why Naruto is buried next to Minato and Kushina."

The crowd now looked up in shock and disbelief, feeling more guilty of their past actions.

"Anyone who pants to pay his personal respects now, may do so." Tsunade announced, disapperearing.

"I will never give up, nii-san. I will fulfill your dream to become the Hokage, and honour your name until my last day." Konohamaru said, dropping his goggles on Naruto's gravestone.

"Thank you for your support Naruto-kun. You were the sunshine in my life, and I will never stop loving you. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you like you were for me.", Hinata said sadly but without a stutter, placing down a picture of him in a heart-shaped case.

"I'm sorry how I always treated you, and how I always hit you. I can never forgive myself for that.", Sakura said, placing an orange jacket from him on the stone.

"I will miss you, gaki. You were the most amazing customer we had, in any possible sense." "Bye, Naruto-kun", Teuchi and Ayame said, placing an unopened bowl of Naruto's favourite ramen on the stone.

"I'm sorry, little one. I should've let you know from the start." Jiraiya said, leaving a family picture of Naruto and his parents.

"I am a failure of a sensei, and I will never be able to redeem myself for that. I'm sorry, Minato-sensei, I'm sorry, Naruto." Kakashi said, leaving a picture of former Team 7.

"You were never a demon for me, and you will never be. Still, I could have protected you more, cared about you more and looked out for you. Bye, Naruto.", Iruka said, leaving his hitai-ate. The second one he gave Naruto.

"You saved Tsunade-sama from herself, and I will never be able to repay you for that. But I will try to repay you, I will continue to look out for Tsunade-sama, and hopefully save her like you did, as well.", Shizune whispered, leaving a picture of her, her pig Ton-Ton and Naruto, playing with the pig, behind.

The other people from Konoha 11 left a few things as well. Shikamaru left his favourite shogi board, Chouji a bag of Naruto's favourite crisps, Tenten her most valuable kunai, Neji a poem he wrote about destiny after his fight with Naruto, Kiba the collar Naruto gave Kiba amd Akamaru for his birthday, the one he never thanked him for, Shino a part of his strongest bug hive, Ino a bouqet of her longest surviving flowers, and Lee his first greem spandex sui. Meanwhile, the crowd slowly left the graveyard, not wanting to interfere with the peace of the dead anymore.

After a few minutes, a busty woman with a bottle of expensive sake went to his grave again, and kneeled in front of it, letting tears flow down her cheeks.

"I would have loved to drink a couple of those with you one day, gaki. Now, I will never get the chance. You have changed my life in a way I never thought someone could, not even Jiraiya could. I am truly devastated that you died, thinking you weren't important to me, but next to Shizune amd Jiraiya, you were the most important person on this world for me, and I will forever hate myself for you dying and thinking otherwise. Goodbye, Naruto-kun.", the blonde woman told, while as if on cue, it started to rain. Thankfully, Jiraiya made a little protection seal, so that the rain didn't sweep away the objects of memorial.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Hashirama's temple, a week ago, right after Naruto's arrival_

"Woow, this place is huge, and it's all under water?" Naruto asked in awe, seeing the giant, mostly wooden temple, with dragons and other paintings covering its insides.

 _"Yes, young shinobi, I made sure to leave behind a temple worth a Hokage."_ Hashirama's spirit said, while he frowned upon seeing Naruto's forehead protector.

 _"Is there a specific reason why your headband has a slash?"_

Yes, because I was hated my whole life from Konoha because of the Kyuubi sealed in me, and a dead person not even living in Konoha tells me who my parents are for the first time. I have no connection at all to this village anymore. There are very few people from Konoha I still care about, but that's it."

Hashirama thought of his words, and then sighed. _"I'm sorry to hear that, young shinobi. I myself only ever had the pleasure to have one great enemy, Madara Uchiha, but an entire village is something different."_

Naruto sneered in response. "Yeah, problems always seem to start with an Uchiha."

Hashirama's spirit snickered a bit, and decided to take his first action.

 _"Well, young shinobi, first of all, I want you to wear a more subtle type of clothing, so goodbye, orange._ Hashirama said, snapping his fingers and letting Naruto watch himself in a mirror. He marvelled seeing his new clothes. The jinchuuriki now had a no sleeved black and grey shirt, black battle pants, black gloves and a black mask to cover his entire face and his whisker marks, only leaving anything above his nose free, where his forehead was covered by his slashed Konoha headband.

( _A/N: I thought of his outfit to look like the outfit from the Shadow Triad from Pokémon Black 2 and White 2)_

"Wow, that's cool, thank you for that"

 _"No problem, young shinobi."_ Hashirama wanted to continue, but noticed a familiar piece of jewelry around Naruto's neck, immediately causing his eyes to widen.

 _"That...that's my necklace! Where did you get that from?"_

Naruto, too, noticed he still had that present from Tsunade tied around his neck.

"Oh, that? It was a present from Tsunade Senju, I guess she's a descendant of you. She's the Godaime Hokage."

 _"Wow, at last we are back on the throne of Konoha."_

"Yeah. Hey, the Hokage knows about everyone's family from the village, right?"

 _"Yes, without any exceptions."_

"So she knew, too, and didn't tell me.", Naruto said bitterly, looking at the green crystal around his neck, stuffing it into his shirt.

 _"Once again I am sorry, that my own kindred would fall so low. Even though I can sense your honesty, I still don't believe it. Though, that is not the reason you're here. So, let us start with the teachings."_

Naruto nodded determinedly, when he noticed four fine pieces of metal hanging on the wall.

"You were a performer of Kenjutsu?", Naruto asked curiously.

Hashirama turned to see the four long katanas on the wall, and turned back to Naruto, nodding.

 _"Yes, in my early days, I usually wielded a sword and especially worked in sync with nature. Due to my wood Kekkei Genkai, I had a natural connection with the wildlife."_

"Can you teach me that? Kenjutsu and everything with nature and wildlife. It sounds very interesting."

 _"Very well, young shinobi. When fighting as a part of nature, you can vary between open fighting, using every tool you can find, or working in stealth, and attacking with swords rather than anything noisy. I will pick you the necessary scrolls for that. They are the following:_

 _Basic and advanced Kenjutsu stances and techniques, One and Two Sword Style_

 _Stealth and Infiltration Scroll_

 _Basic and advanced Fuinjutsu_

 _Tools of the Hunt_

 _Please, pick two swords, young shinobi, so you can train One as well as Two Sword Style techniques."_

"Two, ok." Naruto said and went to the swords, but suddenly remembered a thought from earlier.

"Hey, can you maybe give me four holsters. I can take all of the swords, right?"

Hashirama nodded. _"Of course you can, feel free to take them. But you have to beware those swords, they are dangerous. It is as if they have their own mind, they use aggression and amplify it, but I never understood why. Always think with a clear head while using them."_

"Alright, thanks!", Naruto replied in joy, while he stuffed two swords into the holsters on his back, so the hilts pointed into the sky, prepared for later use, and took two of the swords into his hands, leaving the holsters on each side of his hips empty, while he felt thrilled for his lesson.

 _"So, Rule One of Kenjutsu: Those swords are your life, never lose them!"_

 _A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave reviews!_


	4. Swords, Seals and Sounds

_A/N: Hello guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. First of all, answers for a few comments:_

 **Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze Wind:** _Thank you for the tip, it has been taken care of._

 **N** **aruto Uchiha X:** _I think you can see that I don't like Sasuke very much (I hate that emo)._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Temple of Hashirama_

'Hey Kurama, one more thing. Can you colour my hair red, like my eyes? With that blonde hair, someone might recognize me once I'm out of here, even with the mask.'

 ** _"Yes kit, I can do that, and by the way: You maybe noticed that your senses are heightened a lot. That's because of your eyes. You can control the chakra flow into them yourself. It works like a Dojutsu, even if it isn't one."_**

'Perfect, thank you, Kurama.'

 _"Alright, young shinobi, your lessons will start. First of all, the swords you have are special. They can be more powerful and will glow red if you want to, but you will lose control of yourself in the process. You can regain it, but the more powerful your swords are, the harder it is to regain full control. In the beginning, you will hear whispers, but those whispers turn into real voices, and then screams, asking for blood. Noone has ever yet lost control entirely, so I can't tell you what happens then. Legends tell that a demon lives in there, and fights an eternal battle for control, which noone ever won or lost."_

Naruto nodded in understanding and carefull inspected the swords he already had in his hands. He almost felt their power and potential, and he would try to remember the immense threat. Though, he was no stranger to holding in aggression.

" _Now, there are two main stances and styles I want you to focus on, they are called Shien and Soresu. Shien is an offensive, and Soresu a defensive stance. As a ninja in general, you should be flexible and able to adapt to anything the enemy might throw at you. You can find the stances in your Kenjutsu scroll, and how you counter attacks or deflections by your enemy. You may start with them."_

"Ok, **Taju** **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)**

"Guys, you will train those sword stances here from the scroll, and the fighting styles in general. Got it?"

"GOT IT!", the clones yelled in unison.

 _"I see you already found out the secret of the clones, I'm impressed."_

"Yeah, on a mission, I found out that I remembered everything my clone did, even though I wasn't actually there. So I figured that something was special with them."

 _"Very well, the stances are the center of your training, so it's good that the clones start with them. Another central point is that you learn to infuse your blades with elemental chakra. They will get stronger like that, without the drawback the swords' powers give you_. _Ok, then I will show you a few Kenjutsu techniques. The first one is the_ **Animal Blade**. **Animal Blade** _is a general name, as every person has to find its own animal or creature it can sync best with. There was once a very powerful ninja which used a dragon, and therefore had the_ **Dragon Blade.** _You have to take animals from the wildlife you have the best connection with, and focus on it, pleading for its strength. An animal spirit will come and help you. This technique is perfect to gain the upper hand in the beginning of a battle, since it enhances your strength and speed, but it constantly drains your chakra, and therfore should not be used throughout the whole fight. Do you think you know what your spirit may be?"_

"Hmm... I have a good connection to the Kyuubi, and since it actually is something like a wild fox, I guess I will make it the **Fox** **Blade**."

 _ **"Really, kit? You want to beg to me for power even more often."** ,_ taunted the demon, snickering, even though he was happy a bit.

 _"Very well then. Focus yourself onto the spirit of the Kyuubi, it's voice, sound and how it looks like, and plead it to aid you and your sword, while pumping chakra into it. Then, you swirl it like that (A/N: Imagine how Genji from Overwatch does it when he ults), and, in your case, say: Kitsune no ken wo kurae (A/N: How I understood it, it means: The fox becomes me!). Then you have the_ **One Sword Style: Fox Blade**.

Naruto nodded and created Shadoe Clones, instructing them with the technique and to practice it.

 _"The next technique is perfect for attacking a big mass of people at once, but it leaves you very open for attacks until you charge it, and you will have to have someone cover you in a fight so that you can use it. It is called_ **Two Sword Style: Twin Sword Slash**. _Infuse the swords with your elemental chakra briefly after you slashed with them, and you let a wall of your element follow it. This should be used when covered or at an extreme advantage, because of how open you are before the use."_

Naruto nodded, and instructed another group of clones to do the task.

 _"Alright, that is enough Kenjutsu, the other techniques can be learned at another time. The stealth and hunting training will be done when you have a bit of experience with the swords. Now, we will do a few seals that will come in handy, as they are either practical in everday life, like storage or gravity seals, or seals which can be devastating weapons, such as explosive and fire seals. Please, let's sit down, so you can practice the seals."_

Naruto sat down in preparation for his Fuinjutsu training.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _A year later_

Throughout the whole temple, the dominating sound was metal on metal, together with the sound of air being cut, and an occasional clone being dispelled. Gracefully swapping between Shien and Soresu, Naruto currently fought against four shadow cloneswith only one sword.

 **"Kitsune no ken wo kurae!",** Naruto yelled while swinging his sword, while a smaller, entirely red version of the Kyuubi, swirled around the sword, roaring, and disappeared quickly afterwards.

Meanwhile, Naruto started to continously slash through his clones, dispelling them one by one, until only a squad on the other side of the temple hall was left, which closed in on him.

Naruto drew his second sword, and stood still for a few seconds, breathing in and out. The moment the clone squad nearly reached him, he opened his red eyed, and seemingly jumped through his opponents, his swords pointing outwards like wings.

Then directly behind him, a visible wall of wind followed, slicing through the clones and throwing them into all directions, dispelling them. Seeing that his spar was successful, he dropped the swords, letting them slide into their hilts, and he breathed out, lying down.

" _You fought well, young shinobi. Meet me at this gate there in half an hour."_ Hashirama said, while Naruto nodded.

Naruto went into his assigned room, a simple chamber with a bed and a wardrobe for clothes or weapons. The jinchuuriki prepared his normal kunai, his kunai with several seals, and prepared to go to the mysterious gate at the Eastern side of the temple, while he thought about his past in Konoha.

Admittedly, he did miss a few of the people who actually didn't do him wrong at all. The Ichiraku's, which always treated him kindly, Lee, which was the most optimistic and kind ninja he ever met, and the Konohamaru Corps.

Then, he remembered the bad memories. The rest of the Konoha 11, which either ignored or ridiculed him, all the older villagers which thought of him as the demon, and the older ninja, which did not tell him that he was the Yondaime's son. Even for Iruka, he apparently was enough of a demon to not be worthy knowing about bis parents.

Eventually, his thoughts also shifted to the current Hokage. He had to admit, that she was, hands down, the most beautiful woman he has ever met in his entire life. True, he thought Sakura was very pretty once, but Tsunade was downright gorgeous. Yes, it was only a Genjutsu to hide her actual body, but still, she looked breathtaking once in her life.

Even though he saved her together with Jiraiya, and he thought of her as something like her grandmother, she strode into office with his help, and basically behaved like a stronger Sakura, though he only wanted someone to talk to. Tsunade had her share of emotional scars as well, and he thought it would be the best to talk to her, thinking they had something in common. Apparently, to her he was the same as he was to anyone else. A nuisance, a demon with a purpose, but not with rights.

'Why, baa-chan? I thought I was at least someone to you. I thought you could become one of my precious persons.' Naruto thought, as his hands shook in rage, holding his sword tightly.

 _"Take revenge",_ a voice whispered.

Naruto looked around, but couldn't spot the source of the voice.

"Who's there? Show yourself!", Naruto said, going into his Soresu stance.

 _"Let me still your bloodlust, Naruto."_ , the voice whispered again, then Naruto realized it came from the sword.

Looking at it, Naruto briefly had faint visions of fighting, burning villages, and blood around him, and heard the whispers of the sword to let it go.

For a millisecond he thought about it, but quickly shook his head and dispelled the thoughts from his mind.

'Note to myself: Don't think about Tsunade' Naruto thought, jokingly, picked up his tools, and took off to the gate.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX** X

 _Konoha cemetery_

The currently kneeling woman sneezed, but looked back to the grave, reminiscing about the person that now slowly, ultimately became the most important person in her life. Ironically, she realized how much of a sunshine this particular person was more and more everyday after he died. The never ending source of inspiration became her inspiration, and she wanted to honour his work and his wishes, even though in the end, he lost his love for this village.

"Hey gaki, how is it up there? I hope you were finally able to meet your parents, they were wonderul people. You left quite an impression on a few people. Shizune actually asked to be trained again by me, she wants to be in her best form all the time, so that noone ever dies again on her watch. Jiraiya started to write stories where you get a whole harem for yourself, so that he can honour you in death. No, I haven't become a second Ero-sennin and read his books, but he won't stop talking about it, not even when I hit him with all my power.", Tsunade chuckled, remembering the numerous occasions this happened.

She then sighed, and looked intently at his name.

"Me too. I know, that I will never be as good a Hokage as you would have been, but I try my best. Wherever you are, please know that we miss you gaki, that I miss you."

Very reluctantly, the busty Hokage stood up and went to her office.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Wow, how's that hidden under the earth?", Naruto asked in awe, seeing the gigantic forest on the other side of the gate.

 _"It is a forest artificially, and only created for the purpose of training stealth and hunting, and that's exactly what we will do now. Please, find yourself an animal and try to catch it, it's not important which one. Then you have to touch its head and imagine to talk to it, while you pump chakra from your hand into the head of the animal. Each animal has its own destined amount and speed with which you have to work, so every animal is different to hunt. Tamed animals can command others from their kindred, and be commanded by you. Very briefly, you can obtain the abilities of those animals by compressing your chakra coils onto the level the animals are. This is incredibly dangerous, since it is very physically painful and can permanently destroy your charka coils, but you can do it longer, the better your connection with the animal is. Every skill you use with animals is a_ **Tools of the Hunt** _technique_. _To effectively accomplish this, stealth is a good friend. I will teach you an incredibly strong stealth technique now, since it basically improves whenever you use it. Please, close your eyes and feel the nature, every movement, every sound and every smell it emits._

Naruto was surprised by the very vague task, but nevertheless breathed in deeply, closed his eyes, and focused all of his remaining senses onto his surroundings.

" _Remember every movement very carefully, try to view it like a rhythm, and let the chakra flow through your body similarly."_

Naruto did as instructed, and slowly turned very transparent, until he was nearly invisible.

" _Open your eyes slowly, don't lose focus."_ Hashirama instructed, now whispering.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly, and looked at himself, noticing that he was nearly invisible. More transparent than water, but not 100%.

"Wow, that's so cool.", Naruto said, looking at himself from all angles.

 _"Yes, excellent. It is not perfect yet, but you will learn that with time and practice. This technique is called_ **Thrill of the Hunt** , _and it's ideal to learn how to hunt, and then tame an animal._ _Now, please catch an animal and tame it."_

"And how am I supposed to catch a wild animal?", Naruto asked incredously.

Hashirama Senju looked at him amused and spoke: _"Figure it out."_ , leaving Naruto alone.

'Ok, wild animal. I have Kyuubi's enhanced senses, this should help.', Naruto remembered, looking around for a fitting animal. About 100 metres away from him, there was an eagle sitting on a cliff towering over the forest. The Kyuubi's container analyzed his situation, and saw that he had to climb up the cliff.

'Alrighty, it's an eagle, so he might see me, but it would mean I could fly with a **Tools of the Hunt** technique once I have him.', Naruto thought while approaching the wild animal, which currently did not look into his direction.

The cloaked ninja was almost caught after he had stepped on a tree branch, which caused the eagle to turn into the direction of the sound's origin.

'Shoot, gotta be more careful', the hunter thought, walking up the cliff using the tree climbing logic, the only shinobi technique Kakashi taught him.

After he reached the top, he only stood a few meters in front of the eagle, who seemed to still look into his direction. With every step Naruto closed in to the bird, its gaze seemed to get more suspicious.

Then, after a few more steps, Naruto stood directly in front of the graceful predator, slowly reaching out to grab it around its whole body.

And then, it happened.

The birds wings flapped, and it flew away.

Knowing that the stealth game was now over, Naruto dissolved his invisibility, and ran after the retrearing bird, while gradually running up the trees. He hopped from treetop to treetop, but the eagle was obviously higher in the air.

'Dammit, how do I get you?', Naruto thought, and suddenly got an idea.

" **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** , he shouted, creating a solid copy of himself which ran besides him on the treetops.

Naruto gripped the clones arms and vice versa, and then the clone threw Naruto into the air, now on a level with the eagle. In midair, Naruto grabbed the bird with all his might, and then started falling.

Conveniently, there was a lake where he landed, so that his fall was not as hard. Rising up, he went onto the side of the lake, trying to keep the thrashing eagle in his grip.

'Now, what did he say? Touch head, imagine to talk with it, pump chakra.'

Naruto did as he was instructed, but realized why Hashirama warned him about the different amounts and speeds of chakra necessary. On his first try, the eagle bit him into the finger after screeching loudly. Seeing Naruto's pain, the eagle seemed to do something similar to snickering.

"So you think that's funny, little birdy?", Naruto said as the eagle stopped. "Well then, we'll see how you like this.", Naruto continued, trying the taming process over and over again.

After some time, he heard a voice speak in his head.

 _"God, are you finished yet?"_

Naruto stared disbelievlingly at the eagle, realizing the voice came from him.

"Wait a minute, you can talk?"

 _"Hey, and here I was believing you weren't able to think."_

"HEY, shut up! But, does that mean I tamed you now?"

 _"Tamed? Ha, don't make me laugh. Though I admit, I am impressed that you are able to contact me, so your persistence...intrigues me."_

"So I can use your abilities now?"

 _"Sigh, yes you can. I must say you at least peaked my interest, for no human ever was able to communicate with me, and there were a few in the outside world that tried. While this place is artificial, I am not, and someone in here contacting me means that I can leave this place again."_

"Oh sweet, I have a pet!", Naruto exclaimed in joy.

 _"Grrr, don't call me that, brat."_ "Do you have a name?"

 _"Yes, my name is Chusei.",_ the eagle introduced.

"Hello Chusei, I'm Naruto.", Naruto replied.

 _"Now that we have exchanged pleasantries"_ a suddenly appearing Hashirama said _"I must say I'm very proud of you, young shinobi. You have successfully tamed an eagle, and therefore have access to his abilities and his kindred, and no other possible hunter is able to command them. Congratulations."_

"Thanks, master.", Naruto bowed with respect.

 _"From this day forward, you will sharpen your abilities, and learn a few more of the Kenjutsu techniques. This was one of your most important steps in your training."_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _2 years later (Naruto is 17, Tsunade is 5_ 5)

 _"Do you have forgotten anything, young shinobi?"_

"The swords, the scrolls in the storage seals, my clothes are on me, and my eagle on my side. Nope, everything's here.", Naruto replied, smiling foxily. He maybe despised his village of origin, but the happiness and cheerfulness towards his precious people hasn't changed at all.

 _"Yes, you have. There is one more thing I want to give to you."_ Hashirama said, handing over a scroll to Naruto.

Naruto inspected the scroll closer, and widened his eyes in surprise.

 _Wood Style Techniques_

"Master, are you sure? I mean, I don't have your Kekkei Genkai."

 _"Yes, I am. I have no use for them anymore, and I know you enough to know that you are the best descendant of my legacy. Maybe you won't have my abilites, but to know you have my knowledge is enough...Naruto."_

Beaming at the praise and hearing his master call him by his name for the first time, he bowed and said: "Thank you a lot, master, I will honour your knowledge until I made my last breath."

 _"I know that, Naruto. Goodbye, and please, find happiness."_ , the former Hokage said, tapping Naruto's forehead, rendering him unconsicous.

When he opened his eyes again, he stood by the lake of the Valley the End, a place he knew all too well.

 _"So, what are your plans now, Naruto?"_ his new companion Chusei asked, standing on his shoulder.

 ** _"Yes, what will you do with such power now?"_** , the Kyuubi asked his jailor, clearly intrigued.

Looking into the horizon with a determined, red-eyed gaze, he remembered the four swords he had equipped and answered both of their questions.

"I will raid the Sound Village."

 _A/N: Hello there, I hope you liked the new chapter, even without that much story. Leave reviews, and hope to see you again soon._


	5. Task Force Naruto

_A/N: Hello people, welcome to a new chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Since seomeone already asked: Yes, Hashirama was training him despite his disconnection and hate towards the village. Since he knows, thanks to Madara, what betrayal by comrades inside of Konoha means, he has felt compassion for Naruto, and teached him nevertheless._ _Anyways, here is the new chapter:_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto stood in front of a gate he never once had been before, but he knew if anyone would be happy to find him amongst the living again, it would be the one he always, even when they were close to killing each other, knew he had a special bond with: Gaara.

After their fight, and getting Gaara away from the deep-rooted mistrust and hate towards all people, he had shared his gratitude with Naruto, saying he would try to find his precious people as well, and the blonde already is his first one. He remembered their first encounter all too well.

 _Flashback_

 _"Who are you?", an annoyed Sasuke Uchiha asked._

 _"Sabaku no Gaara. You?", he replied emotionlessly._

 _"Sasuke Uchiha."_ _"I will look forward to our possible fight.",_

 _Gaara said, turning a bit to the side to go, and stood face to face with Naruto, which looked him deeply into his eyes._ _The tension rose quickly between them, as they studied each others' eyes very carefully._

 ** _Kit, be careful around this boy. I can sense Shukaku the One Tails in him, and his jailors always tend to be psychopaths."_**

 _Naruto and Gaara squinted their eyes, seemingly getting the same kind of information at the same time, while Temari, Kankuro, Sakura and Sasuke stood besides them, wondering what was happening._

 _"Naruto Uzumaki." the blonde-haired jinchuuriki started cautiously._

" _Sabaku no Gaara.", the red-haired one replied as cautious as him._

 _"Temari, Kankuro, let's go.", he said before eyeing the knucklehead one last time, and then disappeared with his siblings._

 _Flashback end_

'We certainly weren't the best friends there', Naruto thought amused, closing on to the main gate of Suna.

"Halt, state your business here!", the guards shouted, immediately on edge because of Naruto's slashed Leaf headband.

"Yeah, I'm searching for a ninja called Sabaku no Gaara. Can you bring me to him?"

"What business do you have with our Kazekage?"

'Kazekage, eh? Gaara actually made it, awesome.'

"Some private matters I have to talk about with him. Please tell him the 'Fox wants to play with the Tanuki again', hopefully he knows what this means."

The guards looked at each other, confused by the strange message for their leader, but nevertheless sent someone to bring the message.

 _Kazekage Tower_

 _Knock knock_

"Come in, a stoic voice calmly replied to the knocking sound on the door.

A woman with white robes, blonde hair and a gigantic fan on her back entered the room.

"What is it, Temari?", Gaara said, slowly looking into the eyes of his sister.

"The guards told me there is someone outside who wants to see you, and apparently he had a message. It was something like "The fox wants to play with the tanuki again."

Gaara scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, but then widened them slightly in realization who it might be.

"Let him in.", Gaara replied in his normal emotionless voice.

Temari nodded and left the room, and reappeared after a few minutes with a very adult and strong looking young man. Equipped with four swords, with black ninja clothes, and with slightly longer hair than he remembered Naruto to have. The only facial expressions he could see where different than he remembered. Instead of his deep, cerulean blue eyes and golden blonde locks, he now had red, slitted and feral eyes with a proud red mane. The rest of his face was concealed by a black mask.

Though, he could clearly see this was Naruto. Red or blue, he still had the same determined and confident gleam in his eyes, and unfortunately, the still somehow lonely gaze as well.

"That's certainly a strange code you thought of.", Gaara muttered with a slightly amused tone.

"Well it certainly worked, didn't it?" Naruto replied in a similar amused, yet deeper tone, while he pulled his mask down to reveal his lower face, including his signature whisker marks.

Gaara slowly stood up and approached his supposedly fallen friend. They stood in front of each other, until Gaara applied a quick hit into Naruto's stomach.

"That's for making me think you died, idiot.", Gaara said, growling a bit angry, but he quickly recovered, and briefly hugged him in a brotherly way.

"Welcome back from the dead."

"It's good to be back.", Naruto said, chuckling.

"Wait, who are you?", Temari asked confused. Who the hell was this person that Gaara willingly hugged? The two broke their brief hug, and the new red-haired person turned around.

"Aww, don't you remember me? I'm offended, Temari-chan.", Naruto said cheekily with his bright, shit-eating grin.

He saw how she closely inspected his face, and then here eyes widened and jaw dropped upon seeing the familiar whisker marks.

"N-naruto?", the kunoichi asked, disbelievingly.

"Hey Temari-chan.", he replied.

She ran over to Naruto, hugging him tightly.

"What are you doing here, we were told you died on a mission to retrieve this traitor.", Temari asked, hissing the last words. She didn't know Sasuke very well, but she certainly did not like him.

"Yeah, you won't believe what happened.", Naruto smiled, hugging her back.

"What's that noise?", a voice asked, coming into the room.

Naruto looked at the man coming in. He had strange purple paintings on his face, a black cat-like suit, and two puppets ready for battle.

"Yo, is that a way to properly greet me, Kankuro?"

"Huh. Wait, what?", Kankuro asked, thinking for a few seconds while looking up and down the figure. Aftee he had taken a good glance at the familiar marks on the cheeks, he grinned and gave the figure a hard handshake.

"Well well, look who escaped the Shinigami. How the hell are you still alive, and where were you? We were told you're dead."

"And I suppose there's a reason and a story for that.", Gaara added, pointing at his friend's hitai-ate and the eagle sitting on his shoulder.

"Yeah, about that..."

 _A lot of storytelling later_

Gaara was in a deep thinking pose, processing the information given about Naruto's treatment, his supposed death and his training. Temari looked sympathetic, while Kankuro looked ready to kill somebody.

Finally, Gaara spoke.

"Naruto, you have saved me, so I want to redeem myself. As the Kazekage, I offer you the rank of Genin in the shinobi forces of Suna. Since you haven't formally been made a Chuunin yet, I will have to put you into the Genin section first."

Naruto felt glad that he was offered this oppurtunity, but he remembered the two missions he still had.

"While I am very grateful for your offer, I have still two things I have to take care of myself, and I won't be able to do that as a Suna force."

"What do you want to do?", Gaara asked, lifting his eyebrows.

"My first mission will be to infiltrate the Sound Village, and hopefully destroy it. There are a few valuable files that Orochimaru has, and I need them. Do you happen to know where I can find mercenaries, good ones?"

"Attack the Sound Village, are you crazy? What the hell are you going to do when you meet Orochimaru there?", Temari asked, dombfounded.

"That's why I want to hire someone to assist me."

"Well, if you insist, there are a few suspicious pubs and taverns after going down the main street into the North of the village. There are always people waiting for an offer. I would actually want to come with you, but I can't leave my Kazekage duties now.", Gaara replied.

"I'll come with you. Haha, to go into a battle like that is beyond insanity, I love it, and I can show you which mercenaries are the best. Suna has its own mercenaries, which are directly under the control of Gaara. They don't do regular missions, and not only for Suna. No, those people are every plague the desert lands and beyond have found, and they can work for every village, as long as their loyalty stays with Suna. Since our Jonin team is dissolved, I already joined them.", Kankuro said, laughing heartily.

"Really, you want to come with me?"

"Yes, it's been a long time since I had a good fight, and I want to see what you did the last three years, count me in. Come on, let's find some men, and in the evening we can properly catch up.", Kankuro said with unlimited motivation, while Naruto nodded, following him into the next bar to find solid fighters.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _A few hours later, in 'The Red Cloud'_

"Ugh, Kankuro, those are good and everything, but noone is really standing out. I need someone who has fighting in his blood."

"Dude, you sound like you want Kami himself to come down and help you.", Kankuro retorted, earning himself a glare from Naruto.

Then, the jinchuuriki noticed a blonde, long-haired man in the corner of the pub, sitting there alone.

"Hey Kankuro, what's with him.", Naruto aksed, nodding into the man's direction.

Following his nod, he saw the man sitting in the corner, drinking a bottle of sake for himself, and sighed.

"Him? I don't know, man. He's none of our men, no allegiances, and his reputation is very...special, let's say. No partner he had ever survived, and he always leaves a big mess behind, destroying everything which comes into his path. Some say he's running away from a few tough guys. He's trouble."

Naruto squinted his eyes, and said: "Good, I want trouble, as fast as possible. Come on, we'll talk to him."

The two slowly approached his table, and started to speak.

"Hey, can we sit down here?", Naruto asked the figure, which nodded slightly.

"What do you want? There's a reason you're here, right?"

"Yes, I heard you're a troublesome ( _A/N: Very far away, a pineapple-haired young man sneezed)_ fighter, and where I will go soon, I want the biggest mess ever to be left. So, I have work for you."

"Work, huh? Here, take a drink.", the man said, pushing his bottle of sake over to Naruto and Kankuro, who took a little sip each, relishing in the slight afterburn of their throats.

"So, where do you want to go, boy?"

"We will attack the Sound Village soon, I am interested in a few information Orochimaru possesses, and I need to find them."

"A whole village? What do you two think you're gonna attack with, your scary eyes and strange face paintings?"

Kankuro quickly leaned over the table, being held back by Naruto.

"Let me go, I'll kill him!", Kankuro growled loudly, while the man laughed and took a big sip from his sake bottle.

After everyone calmed down again, the former blonde spoke to his possible partner again.

"Kankuro here is extremely strong with puppets, while I use Kenjutsu, stealth and my animal companions."

"So you need someone for the rougher things, to...", the mercenary started.

"...mess things up.", Naruto finished

"Hmm, and what would be my payment? To attack a village with a legendary Sannin in it is very dangerous, you know?"

"We will probably fight our way through to my target. I am only interested in a few files, so you two can basically take whatever you find there."

Seeing the still not fully convinced man, Gaara's brother added "And I can ask the Kazekage for a bit of financial payment as well."

After some time of thinking, the man nodded, shook Naruto's hand and laughed.

"Ok kid, you got yourself a deal. What's your name by the way? I like to know my partners name before joining them into battle immediately."

"I'm...Naruto, but I will have to ask you that my name stays with you. If you tell anyone about my name, you won't receive any payment, and we will hunt you down."

The man laughed again, and took a sip from his bottle.

"I like you, kid. Don't worry, I'm no stranger to having enemies and running away, so your name stays a secret."

"What's your name by the way, and what are your specific abilities?", Kankuro asked the man, which now had a proud gleam in his eyes.

"I'm Deidara, and my ability? Hehe, I make art, yeah!"

 _A/N: Thanks for reading guys, and hope to see you in the next chapter. Leave reviews!_


	6. The Snake's head (Part 1)

_A/N: Hello people, welcome back to my newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Someone asked whether the Deidara in my fic is the one before he joined Akatsuki. The whereabouts of Deidara will be explained later on. Enjoy the new chapter:_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The day after recruiting Deidara_

Everything had been settled. After a talk with Gaara, Kankuro and Naruto got a little camp for their own two men mercenary cell in the future, just outside town, and even additional space for Deidara. It consisted of a big, comfy tent, working as their assembly point, and three seperate tents for sleeping. They formed a square like camp, while in the middle, there was a nice campfire, surrounded by logs. The whole camp was illuminated by torches standing as high as a normal grown up person, which surrounded all the tents.

Currently, the three man group ate their dinner quietly, while the desert had a cool and soothing atmoshpere, being looked down by the black night sky. Kankuro and Naruto remained in their black battle suits. Due to Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto was used to unbearable heat, and Kankuro always lived in the desert, so he had no problem with its climate. Deidara switched from his civilian clothing into a beige robe, while he now additionally wore his slashed hitai-ate from Iwagakure.

"What's your story?", Naruto said, nodding to him.

Deidara sighed, and looked deeply into the campfire.

"You know I have the Bokuton. A Kekkei Genkai, that simply causes explosions in every way possible, was not very popular with the people of Iwa. So I left. I was hated for what I have, and probably will be in the future again, but I think it's art. My bloodline makes me special, and I like it that way.", the mercenary answered cryptically, not going too much into detail.

"Yours?", Deidara nodded to him. Kankuro simply listened while polishing and repairing his puppets.

"Basically the same. I have powers that were forced on me, and everyone hated me for it. People laughed at me, betrayed me, and brushed me off whenever I exceeded my purpose. One day, I had a mission to retrieve my defecting teammate. I wanted to die, and he killed me. Or so I thought. I found a place to train, a master, and now I'm here. Konoha thinks I'm dead, and I'm perfectly fine with that.", Naruto said, while eating his soup.

 _'This story, it seems familiar. Is it actually him?',_ Deidara thought, nodding while Naruto told of his past a bit.

"Well, Deidara" Naruto said after finishing, eying his blonde acquaintance "you told us that you have the Bokuton, right? So, I want you to make the biggest bomb possible. With us, I want you to show your true self, because mine is certainly strange enough, and using puppets is kinda creepy as well."

"HEY!", Kankuro yelled at the redhead in front of him.

Naruto snickered, and continued.

"I have no problem with your abilities, and especially not when they will be useful on our mission.", Naruto smiled sympathetically.

Deidara nodded happily and had a proud grin.

"I already took care of that. When you talked to me about the Sound, I knew you didn't want any 'boom', but THE 'boom' itself, my finest piece of art. Look"

Deidara then took a small figure of clay out of his hand, which actually did not look that impressive.

"Now, it might not look like much, but once I drop it, you will see the true power of my art, yeah.", the blonde shouted ecstatically, while the two others both sweatdropped a little at his explanation.

"Very well. I asked a few ninja, they told me the Sound Village consists of underground labroratory systems, and an additional village Orochimaru ordered to be built for all of the ninja he collected. I think we will first search through one of his labroratories, and see what we can find there."

"What are those files you are looking for anyways, you never told us?", Kankuro asked curiously, while Deidara also leaned in.

"Orochimaru is known for his experiments, right? I'm looking for two of his records, from people I know his experiments have worked on."

"Can't you say what those experiments did specifically?", Kankuro whined at the lack of direct information.

"Nah, can't spoil too much of their story.", Naruto told, nodding towards the reader. Kankuro and Deidara nodded understandingly, that was a reason good enough to compensate their unknowingness.

( _A/N: Which experiments do you think Naruto is looking for? I'll be happy to read your guesses.)_

"Why exactly would Orochimaru build a whole village? Doesn't that kind of destroy his underground reputation?", Kankuro asked confused.

"Maybe he wants to have his own actual village. Many people seemed to join him the last years, according to the information of the ninja around here. I suppose to make it a bit more inviting to give up your body for a crazy Sannin, an actual village is more fitting than some suspicious underground labroratories.", Deidara answered.

"Yeah, I guess. So, my puppets are finished."

"My ultimate weapon is formed, and smaller bombs are ready as well."

"Blade sharpened, burning and explosion seals drawn, and Chusei ready for battle."

' _You bet, Naruto.'_ , his proud eagle cried out.

 ** _"And don't forget me, kit."_** , Kyuubi growled in Naruto's head.

"People, let's show the Sound our arts.", Naruto yelled, while the two ninja next to him placed their outsretched hands on top of his one.

"Right!"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The next morning_

With everything prepared, Deidara quickly called for his bird made out of clay, and the six of them (three ninja, three puppets) took off into the direction of Rice Country. It took a while to cross Amegakure, Kusagakure and Takigakure, but on Deidara's artificial bird, they reached it by the time of noon.

"Hey guys, I think that's a labroratory!", Kankuro said, pointing to an entrance to an underground passage.

"Yeah, looks like it. Land 200 metres away from it, Deidara, we will walk then.", Naruto ordered and his companion nodded.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The entrance_

"Strange, there are no guards.", Kankuro whispered behind the gigantic root of a tree the three where hiding at.

"This place has to be filled with guards and traps. Wait a second.", Naruto started when he saw a rat running in front of the gate.

 **"Tools of the Hunt: Rat Sight.",** the jinchuuriki whispered, sending his spirit into the rat.

Going as fast as possible, for he couldn't stay in it that long, he ran through the gate. Looking around, he found a grey stone passage, but still, he noticed no guards. Just a dark passage leading straight forward. He left the rat's body then.

Narutos limp body moved again, and then he spoke.

"Strange, there are still no guards inside. It's a dark, long passage, so we have to look out for traps.", the redhead instructed the others.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Inside the passage_

"Man, this place is creepy. No wonder nobody likes Orochimaru.", Kankuro thought out loud, while his companions nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's damn sinister inside here.", Naruto said.

The three continued to walk cautiously, until they reached the point where the passage split up into three different ones.

"Well guys, it seems noone will see my art now.", Deidara said, knowing they would split up now.

"Then let me give this to you." Naruto said, pointing his glowing hands towards the ears of his partners.

"On your right ears, you have communication seals. Pump a little chakra into them, and we'll hear everything you hear. Alright?", Naruto explained, and the puppet master and Bokuton user nodded in affirmation.

"Then let's go.", Naruto said, walking the path in the middle, while Kankuro went left and Deidara right.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Deidara_

Being the experienced ninja he was, it was easy to dodge the rather simple shuriken or spike traps. After some time, he reached a monstrous, but closed gate. Being the art lover he was, he threw a little clay bomb onto it, blasting the doors open. After the smoke cleared, he was surprised to see a peaceful, black-haired woman sitting on the floor, playing a harp-like instrument.

"Now that's very rude. Orochimaru-sama clearly instructed me that I would welcome the visitors here, and not the other way around.", the woman said in her extremely sweet voice.

"Hehe, art always introduces itself, and I don't care for that snake. I still have unsettled business with him.", Deidara said, preparing 3 clay bombs in his hand.

"Music is the only true art, everything else is nothing but a perversion of it."

The clay user narrowed his eyes.

"You'll pay for that.", he said, going into his battle stance.

"We'll see.", she said, pulling on a string a final time, and suddenly, all of her hair shot out, intending to pierce her opponent.

He dodged narrowly, and threw one of his claybombs in form of a bird at the woman, which was caught her hair that she now used around her to protect herself.

 **"Bokuton: C1 (Explosion Style: C1)"**

The bird exploded, and the woman was briefly surrounded in a light flash.

"I must admit" she started through the smoke "that I certainly felt that."

The blonde smirked and spoke: "I hope so, I put a lot of effort into my art."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Kankuro_

"Argh, the hell is that?", the puppet user asked while he barely stood on a spike in a ditch he fell in. Apparently, his way was free of ninja, but full of shuriken, fire and now spike traps.

Suddenly, he heard a gushing voice, coming from behind him. Once he fell into the ditch, a mechanism to dispose corpses was activated, and sent out a fast stream of water, which now teared away him and his three puppets.

He was directly pumped in front of the main entrance, soaking wet. Activating his communication seal, he said.

"Guys, I'm in front of the main entrance again, there was nothing, the path was full of traps, and had a dead end.", the Sand-nin informed the others.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Naruto_

Nodding to himself upon hearing Kankuro's whereabouts, he continued to walk down his way, until he reached a great hall, with periodically placed pillars, a torch on each. Still, in the middle, the path continued to a door on the other side, a white light emanating from it.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway after suddenly, a familiar voice echoed through the halls.

"Well, well, well, I didn't think I would find a fellow Leaf shinobi here."

Turning around, the jinchuuriki saw a boy with long, grey hair, black and white clothes, and a Sound headband.

"Kabuto.", was Naruto's simple reply.

"Oh, I didn't think my name was that known yet, but I'm very proud of it.", the Konoha missing-nin snickered.

"I'm not sure who you are, though. I can't remember any Konoha-nin with red hair. Say, do you happen to want to join Orochimaru-sama?", the grey-haired man asked rhetorically.

"It's better that you don't know my name, not that it would matter anyways if that's the last thing you ever knew or not.", the redhead said, grabbing the hilt of one of his swords strapped on his back.

"Unfortunate, very unfortunate.", Kabuto said, picking a kunai.

 **"Kitsune no ken wo kurae!"** , Naruto yelled, unsheathing his sword and releasing the little red form of the Kyuubi briefly.

'Wait...wasn't that..", Kabuto's thoughts were interrupted, narrowly deflecting the empowered Narutos' blows.

The two traded blows, sparks flying while Naruto more and more pressed his speed advantage.

The jinchuuriki felt more and more bloodthirsty, which was only amplified by every cut he created on his opponent's body.

 _"Yes Naruto, use me. Use my power, and strike down your enemy, I can feel that you want it, too."_

Confused by the voice, he eyed the sword suspiciously, feeling the power and aggression radiating off of it.

That glare gave Kabuto enough time to catch the redhead off-guard, slashing a bit into his chest, from his right shoulder down to his left waist.

A sound of pain escaped the boys' lips, and he retreated with a series of backflips, resting on his right knee.

Forced to look up, he saw Kabuto, who pressed a kunai into his throat, and slashed through it.

The lifeless body of the red-head fell onto the floor, and then dispelled into a cloud of smoke.

The Sound-nin turned around, and spotted the now unharmed looking Naruto on the other side of the hall.

"You're good, you would be a fine body for my master's experiments.", the medic said, going into a battle stance again and pushing his glasses up.

Naruto smirked at the Sound-nin, and responded: "Oh don't worry, I'll make good use of your masters' experiments."

He then returned his sword, and briefly closed his eyes, breathing in and out. Opening them, they had a much more intense red shine, as if they were red stars.

 **"Moetsukiru! (Burn out!)"**

 _(A/N: I just love the sound of that in Japanese, so I wrote it like that.)_

Without time to react, Kabuto's body was engulfed in deep red (Kyuubi red) fire which thrashed around violently.

"I see you utilized the Kage Bunshin yourself, Kabuto.", Naruto spoke, seeing Kabuto who now was in the middle of the hall.

"Placing a fire seal on my back in close combat, really witty. But what's with the fire, that doesn't look normal.", wondered the medic loudly.

Naruto smirked "That's for me to know, and you to never find out.".

 **"Tools of the Hunt: Eagle's Claws!"** , he yelled.

Not prepared for the eagle approaching from behind, he tried to dodge in the last second, but was hit by an enlarged claw, hitting his legs and rendering him almost unable to move.

 **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!",** the redhead screamed, creating four clones of him, surrounding Kabuto, who now received more and more cuts.

"Grrrgh", Kabuto hissed as Naruto landed a viscious slash on his right arm, which started feeling numb.

"Now take this!", the swordsman and his clones yelled. One clone slid on his back next to Kabuto and kicked him in the air, while the clones further kicked him up.

 **"U-zu-ma-ki"**

Then, the real Naruto floating above Kabuto thrusted his swords into his enemies' ribcage, descending into the ground with him.

 **"Naruto Rendan!"**

The clouds of smoke from the impact cleared, and showed a violently bleeding Kabuto, with Naruto kneeling on one knee besides him.

"You're...*cough*...the Kyuubi kid. How..."

Not finishing his thoughts, he smiled and placed his hand into his chest. After he pulled it out again, he also removed his heart from his body.

"I don't know..how you're still alive.., but you'll die here. Do you see the chakra wires here? I linked my chakra system...to yours. If I die today, you'll..come with me."

Naruto widened his eyes, and looked onto his chest to indeed see little blue lines flowing into it. Then, his attention turned to a source of laughter.

Coming up from the other side of Kabuto's body, there was a clapping Naruto.

"Ahh, yes, I've heard of this technique from my master, really a brave one. Too bad only a Kage Bunshin will follow you into the afterlife, little snake.", Naruto's true form and Shadow Clone laughed at that, and then both finished off the dumbfounded looking Kabuto.

Looking down at the corpse, Naruto activated his communication seal.

"Yo Kankuro, do you have the need for a medic-nin puppet?"

With a brief delay, the puppet user answered.

"A medic-nin would be quite helpful in the future, so yes, sure.", he informed.

Nodding, Naruto sealed away the dead body in a storage seal, and proceeded his actual way.

After some time, he came upon something that looked like the mixture of an asylum and a labroratory.

Cells with beds and restraints left behind, tons of syringes and chemicals, and surgical rooms. Though none of them had any files regarding the experiments of Orochimaru.

Then, he immediately heard a something that sounded like a step. He unsheathed two swords and sprang into a battle stance.

"Show yourself, I know someone's here! Who are you?"

Coming out from a room further down the corridor, he saw a beautiful girl, with long, red hair, red eyes and glasses. Her upper body was covered in a violet overall, while her lower body was covered by a pair of short pants and black stockings.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?", the girl asked.

 _'His chakra is so strong and warm, yet cold in the inside. He hides pain, it seems. And... what is that? Such evil chakra in a human?",_ she thought.

"I asked first, give me your name!", Naruto asked, eyes flaring in frustration.

"Karin. Karin Uzumaki. I am, or rather was the head of this station, yet as you can see, it's abandoned."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. Uzumaki? Does that mean he had family? He was told he was an orphan, so who was she?

"I-impossible. You're..an Uzumaki?", Naruto asked in disbelief.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she answered.

"Yes, as I said. Now who are you and what are you doing here?", she asked sternly, preapring herself for battle.

"I'm..Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. Son of the Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki"

Her eyes widened now as well. There was another one?

"Kushina Uzumaki? That's my aunt! You mean to tell me that you, my cousin, just walked in here randomly?"

"Yes, I'm searching for Orochimaru's experiments, I still have unsettled business with him."

Karin thought for a bit, pushing up her glasses. It all made perfect sense. The rumors about Kushina's possible son, the events of October 10th, the stories of an Uzumaki kid throughout Konoha, Wave and even Suna, everything added up, contrary to what was told to her by Orochimaru.

She sighed, and then looked into the slitted eyes of her supposed cousin.

"Then you're wrong here. Orochimaru transferred all of his experiment records to his new palace."

Nodding, Naruto asked:

"So, what'll happen now?"

She sighed again, and started to speak.

"I have reasons to believe that you are actually my cousin. Adding to that, what Orochimaru let me live through and told me about my family is far beyond any reason or reality. My allegiance with him is over now, and my redemption ended with the day he hid my family from me."

"So..does that mean.."

"I would gladly join you, cousin.", she said, smiling slightly.

Running up to her, he encircled her with his arms in a tight hug.

"Finally..finally, I have an actual family. You're the first one I see who shares the same blood with me.", he said, with a few tears running down his face.

After a moment of reluctance, she returned his hug.

"We have more time to make ourselves acquainted later, now, we should get going. This place is still not empty.", the girl said, releasing the brief hug.

"Yeah, I've already taken care of Kabuto. I hope Deidara took care of whatever he found."

"Deidara?", the red-haired girl asked.

"Yeah, a partner of mine. Oh, wait."

Naruto again activated his communication seal, and spoke to Deidara.

"Yo, Deidara, we have everything we need for now. Whatever you do, just come back in front of the entrance. And leave enough of your explosives there to blow up the room."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Deidara_

Currently, the mentioned man was strangled by a set of hair, which pulled him closer to its origins: The head of a woman.

"Time to die, psuedo-artist.", she said in a sweet voice, and finished her strangle.

Deidara's eyes rolled back into his head, and the body stopped struggling.

And then, it happened.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

"Ahh, clay clones, I love 'em.", the real Deidara spoke from inside the cloud of smoke, which showed the deceased musician.

Activating his seal, he spoke.

"Roger, I'll be right there."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Outside of the entrance_

"Yo, who's that chick?" Kankuro asked Naruto, while Deidara looked curious, Naruto a bit nervous and Karin irritated, with her left eye twitching.

"That 'chick' is his cousin, and I would prefer to be called Karin, idiot.", the girl answered.

"Don't underestimate an Uzumaki, Kankuro. Never.", Naruto warned, while the Sand-nin gulped at the two threats.

"Now since we are a happy and reunited", Deidara started, interrupting the little fight "do you have the records you need?"

"No, I don't. We will go to the main village, and somehow have to infiltrate Orochimaru's palace, find the records, and then it's showtime for you, Deidara.", Naruto spoke, while all the others nodded and said blonde smirked at the last part.

"Yeah, can't wait to finally test my baby.", he said.

"We should take a rest over the night, and then, we can attack tommorow in the morning.", Karin suggested.

"Sounds good, but first, let us bury this godforsaken place.", Naruto said, turning his face to the entrance.

"You left the explosives there, right, Deidara?", the jinchuuriki.

"Yeah, I did.", the clay user answered.

"Perfect."

Naruto brielfy closed his eyes again, and searched for the explosive seals he left on the pillars in the room he fought Kabuto in, and the corridors of the left behind aslyum.

Opening them with brighter red eyes, he screamed.

 **"Moetsukiru!"**

His explosions rocked the whole hideout, and, in a chain reaction, caused Deidara's clay to explode as well, causing everything to crumble and fall apart, until, in the end, the only thing left was an entrance fully closed by fallen down rocks.

"Brace yourself, snake, we will come for you."

 _A/N: Hello guys, hope you liked the chapter, please review!_


	7. The Snake's head (Part 2)

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. I have to say that I'm a little disappointed in my writing from the fight against Kabuto, which really made it look like my Naruto is a god-like ninja. And yes, Kabuto is dead and stays dead. Fortunately, there will be more than enough fights coming in which I can write better. Maybe I'll even update the previous chapter if I have time and an idea on how to make it better._

 _Plus, I will delay the information on which experiment records Naruto wants to steal as long as possible, since I still haven't read a single guess from you. I hope that changes soon._

 _Anyways, here's the new chapter:_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"What were you even doing down there, how did you meet Orochimaru?", the jinchuuriki asked.

Karin sighed, and looked into the flame of the campfire.

"My family died long ago. From that point forward, I was alone in my village, Kusagakure. I was used because I have a special healing ability. If you bite me, then you are able to fully heal yourself, at the expence of my own chakra. This left many scars behind, and all those times...I was abused to heal others, they still haunt me. Orochimaru then took me with him, and I wanted to leave. He knew who I was, but told I had no remaining family, and he used me for experiments, and for healing, too.", she finished, shuddering.

Naruto laid a comforting arm around her shoulder, causing her to flinch slightly, but then relax and lean into the embrace.

"Don't worry Karin, with us, you're save. I won't let anything happen to you, to any of us. I will always protect my precious people, and I don't go back on my word. That's my ninja way!", the redhead exclaimed, earning himself nods from his teammates, and a Karin leaning deeper into him, while Chusei nuzzled her cheek affectionately. Naruto chuckled.

"Chusei seems to like you. Maybe you should keep him for the mission tomorrow.", he said.

"Thanks, Naruto. I owe you something.", she sniffed slightly.

"Hey, that's what's family is for, right?", he grinned foxily.

"Yeah", she said, looking back into the flame of the campfire, and then remembered something.

"Hey, what's with your eyes? I mean those slits are strange."

Naruto nodded, and replied to them all.

"Kankuro probably already knows from Gaara, but you two.", he started, referring to Deidara and Karin "don't. I'm a jinchuuriki, the Kyuubi is sealed inside me. That's one of the reasons Konoha hated me. Whenever I use his power, my facial features change, and I even get a red chakra cloak, that resembles a fox. A while ago, the day I was supposed to die, I asked Kurama, Kyuubi's name by the way, to pump a little chakra into my eyes constantly so they stay red, and colour my hair red as well, so that no Leaf ninja recognizes me if I happen to meet one accidentally."

' _So that was the strange chakra I sensed.',_ Karin thought.

 _'Poor boy, I don't know if I can even look into the eyes of one of those people ever again.',_ Kankuro thought.

 _'The Kyuubi...so it's really him.',_ Deidara thought.

"Wait, you said one of the reasons you were hated was the Kyuubi, but what are the others?", Karin asked her cousin.

Naruto chuckled, and looked in the flame again, a sad smile on his face.

"You sit next to the Dead Last of Konoha, number one unpredicatble knucklehead, obnoxious loudmouthed brat, the one who's too much trouble to deal with. In they eyes of nearly everyone, I was unnecessary ballast."

Karin frowned sadly at the story, and everyone was silent for a moment.

"Well, I'm an obnoxious loudmouth myself, so your attitiude is fine by me, yeah.", Deidara said, grinning at his partner.

"You saved Gaara from himself, man, and I will be eternally grateful for that, Dead Last or not.", Kankuro added

"Your my family, and I accept and love my family as they are, even if we don't know each other well yet. A group of loudmouths, that will be fun", Karin finished jokingly.

Looking everyone in the eyes and seeing their honesty, he nodded.

"Thanks guys, that means a lot to me."

After a brief silence, Deidara started to talk.

"So, how do we do this tomorrow? I mean I just want to blow something up there, but you wanted some experiments, right?"

The redhead nodded. "Do you know where Orochimaru keeps the records of his experiments, Karin?"

"Yeah, by know, he transferred all of his files into his personal chambers. They are in the Otokage mansion. The problem is that I don't know where his chamber is, so you'll have to find it yourself."

He nodded, and looked into the flame with a thoughtful frown.

"Ok guys, here's the plan..."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The next morning_

"Ok boys, there's Otogakure!", Karin yelled, due to the noise of the wind passing them on Deidara's bird.

"So, Kankuro and I will go down there. When we're finished, I will contact you and you will give them their suprise, got it, Deidara?", Naruto said, causing the addressed man to nod with a maniac grin.

"Hehe, they will love my art!"

Karin looked confused at Deidara, and asked:

"For you, explosions are art?", she asked

He shook his head, and yelled.

"No, art is an explosion!"

Everyone sweatdropped a bit, but laughed afterwards.

"Ok, we're right above the mansion, you two can drop now. Good luck guys, and be careful. Contact us through the communication seal and we will find you.", Karin said.

Nodding, Naruto and Kankuro jumped from the clay bird down onto the roof of the Otokage mansion, making sure to feather their landing and minimize the 'thud' sound.

Unsheathing a sword and enhancing it with wind chakra, the jinchuuriki slashed a circle through the roof right below them, the circle from the roof quickly caught by the puppet master and laid silently next to the hole.

Before entering, Naruto stuck his head through the hole, to check if there were any guards that might be alarmed. Only seeing an empty hallway, Naruto let himself fall through the hole, quickly followed by Gaara's brother.

They looked around in the dim wooden passage, and decided to go right, signalizing each other with handsigns and nodding. They followed the way until they reached a corner. Naruto looked around the corner carefully, and noticed three guards, facing them with their backs.

Naruto whispered.

"Three guards, 20 metres from here. I take two, the one left and in the middle, you the right. Kabuto's chakra scalpel is pretty silent, too."

Kankuro nodded and prepared his new puppet of Kabuto, while Naruto crouched, two swords already unsheathed.

Every step was made with utmost care, hoping the guards in front of them did not get suspicious.

Step.

Nothing.

Step.

Nothing.

Step.

The guard in the middle stirred a bit, stopping the two dead in their tracks, while Naruto signalized to stop in a 'halt' motion of his hand.

The Oto guard though did not turn around, but continued to stare ahead, so Naruto and Kankuro walked again.

Step.

Nothing.

Step.

Nothing.

And then it, after a few more steps, something happened.

Step.

The right guard turned around, and was greeted by the puppet of Kabuto, swinging a chakra scalpel at his throat.

Any scream, any word, any action was stopped immediately, and swapped with a slight gurgling noise.

Naruto quickly sliced through the throats of the remaining, and seemingly rather poorly trained guards. He sheathed his swords back quickly, and caught the two guards, hands on their mouths to annihilate any escaping noises, while Kankuro ordered his puppet to do the same.

Naruto formed his signature cross-finger handseal and whispered **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."**

The entire, now cleared hallway was filled with Narutos, with each of them taking out the rat from the underground base which he securely stuffed in an extra pouch. He had a feeling he would need it again.

All of them placed their rat on the ground, formed a few handseals and now all whispered: **"Tools of the Hunt: Toxic Rat Plague."**

The rats scurried to the three corpses and overran their bodies. Kankuro wondered what the technique was doing, especially since the rats seemed to be...chewing?

After the rats were done, all Shadow Clones and their rats dispersed, leaving now only the original Naruto, Kankuro, one rat and a clear ground.

"What the...", Kankuro said.

"Acidic spit. The technique is called toxic plague for a reason.", Naruto answered, chuckling a bit, and already starting a few handsigns again.

 **"Tools of the Hunt: Rat Sight."**

His body fell unconscious and was quickly caught by Kankuro, while the jinchuuriki now walked in the rats body.

'Ok, where are you files, where are you.'

He finished the rest of the corridor the three guards were in, and walked around the corner to the right, nothing in his sight. He continued and now passed a corner again, going left this time.

'Like a labyrinth.', Naruto thought, continuing his walk.

Around the corner, the wooden passage ended with a closed door, two guards standing in front of it. They already looked more focused than the ones from before, seeing how tense they were because of the rat's movement, even though they didn't kill it upon seeing it's only a rat.

Leaving the rat quickly, Naruto opened his eyes and regained consciousness, feeling how his wrists already hurt from the long compression of his charka coils.

His partner noticed his pain, and how he rubbed his wrists, and therefore ordered the Kabuto puppet to heal his wrists.

"Thanks Kankuro.", Naruto whispered.

"So what did you see?", his partner asked.

"A big door, two guards in front of them. They are stronger than the ones before, and: They look straight ahead. The other ones placement was just convenient because of the many side passages that they have to guard, too."

"So, what'll we do?"

Naruto and Kankuro both thought, until Kankuro smirked and whispered:

"You told us something about invisibility, right?"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _A minute later_

Naruto's back now faced the wall, 10 metres away from the corner he was supposed to cross.

"Ready?", his puppet-using partner asked in a low whisper still.

Naruto nodded, and went through some handsigns.

 **"Thrill of the Hunt."**

While he turned invisible slowly, he half-whispered, half-growled like a feral cat:

"Graaaagh, listen..."

Now he was fully concealed, every trace of him minimized.

He walked around the corner, and saw how the guards seemed almost unsuspecting, with only a slight edge.

Naruto crouched on all fours, like a predator, and slowly walked towards the guards.

One of the guards seemed to get a strange feeling, while he slowly reached out towards his weapons pouch.

Naruto slowed down his pace a bit, trying to ease the worries of his opponent a bit, which seemed to work.

Then suddenly, a kunai swung and embedded itself with a loud 'thud'.

"Ha, what was that, you idiot?", one Oto-nin laughed heartedly.

"Shut up, you had the feeling there was something too, haven't you?", the other guard shouted back.

"Well, it seems there isn't anything, as you can see here."

Right above them was a slightly sweating Naruto, crouching upside down on the ceiling.

'Phew, that was close. Now your turn, Kankuro.

The puppet user waited a few seconds to make sure his partner was in position. He took his Kabuto puppet, and shook it.

 _Clack clack clack_

The guards immediately got into a fighting position, and narrowed their eyes while still looking down the hall.

 _Clack clack clack_

"You heard that too, right?", one guard asked, and the other one nodded.

Focusing themselves on the continous, suspicious sounds from around the corner, the two slowly went to follow the noise.

After a few steps, Naruro silently descended to the ground, embedding his two swords into both guards spinal cord. Then he repeated the procedure with the rats.

"Good job, Kankuro."

The man walked around the corner with a proud grin.

"Anyone could've taken out those, those were Chuunin, maybe even Genin. That was nothing."

With a tick mark on his forehead, the jinchuuriki whispered violently: "Tell me that back home, and I'll make sure to kick your ass. Now, let's get in here."

Cautiously, they walked to the door, and surprisingly, it was open. Poking his head inside, he saw an empty bed, a sparring field, and most importantly, countless shelves full of scrolls, folders and chemicals.

"So, you know which one to search, Kankuro?"

The puppet user nodded, and they split themselves up to look for the files.

'Now, where are you, where are you?', Naruto thought, skimming through the files.

'No, no, no, no, ahhh, there you are!', the redhead thought.

'Now, I need the genes, too.'

The genes were found rather easily, since they were far too important for the Snake Sannin to be left in some corner. Noticing a rather special scroll, he took a look at it and it's title. ' _The Art of Animation and Reincarnation'._

'Hm, might be useful some day.'

Leaving the ocean of shelves, Naruto asked: "Yo Kankuro, do you have the file?"

The cat suit man left the shelves, too, with a file in his hand.

"Yes, here it is.", the puppet master said, handing over the file to the jinchuuriki, who quickly stored everything into a scroll and stuffed it into his pocket.

"And what...", a voice behind them started to hiss "do you two think you're doing?"

Instantly activating the communication seal connected to Deidara and Karin, Naruto turned towards the all too familiar voice behind him, while Kankuro readied his Kabuto puppet.

The figure frowned upon seeing the puppet. "I already wondered what took him and Karin so long. So the two of you killed them?"

Naruto smirked and started to speak: "I hope you're not too sad about him, you can find another ass-kisser anywhere on this world, Orochimaru."

The Sannin went out of the shadows, revealing his long, black hair, yellow snake eyes, purple paintings around his eyes, grey, white and black robes, and a smirking face.

"A Suna-nin and a defected Konoha-nin? What a strange pairing.", the snake user hissed with an intrigued voice.

"So you have taken a liking for my experiments, I see. Wouldn't you rather be here, and let us see if they can be repeated?"

"Thanks, but no thanks. In my future, you unfortunately have no place.", the redhead said, drawing two swords.

'Come on guys, I hope you hear me.'

"Kukuku, that's very unfortunate. Who are you though? You should be 16 or 17, and a former Konoha-nin. I should know you.", Orochimaru said, before opening his mouth and drawing his own sword, Kusanagi.

"Wouldn't you like to know?", Naruto spoke, and then charged at the Sannin with his dual swords, while Kankuro sent out the Kabuto puppet and his already blue flaring Chakra scalpel, the clashing sounds resonating throughout the room.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Karin and Deidara_

"We will have to descend and find them!", Deidara shouted at Karin.

"I know, but I can only feel faint chakra signatures in the whole mansion. It's probably because Orochimaru and Naruto fight with their swords and Kankuro with his puppet. We have to wait for a spike, then I can feel them better."

"Then keep looking!", Deidara ordered the redhead while looking down at the mansion.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Naruto and Kankuro_

'Grr, I can't come near him.', Naruto thought. His opponent either deflected the blows of Naruto's swords with his one, or shaped his body in abnormal ways to evade them. He truly was a legendary Sannin, being able to evade three blades at once.

 _'Use me, Naruto. You need me'_

Ignoring the voice, Naruto connected another blow with Orochimaru's sword and pushed against it, while the puppet user was distracted by a mud clone.

"Kukukuku, tell me, young Leaf-nin, what does one want with my kind of work? The last time I checked Konoha hated me for it.", the Snake taunted.

"Don't call me a Leaf-nin! I'd rather be a demon than a Leaf-nin!"

"Big words, but a demon, being or using one, always has a price."

"Hopefully my price isn't to be so ugly and pale like you."

Smirking and hissing, Orochimaru jumped back, while controlling his Kusanagi in the air. Naruto deflected the blows from it, and substituted himself with a Shadow Clone, while he ran at Orochimaru's retreating figure at full speed.

 **"Nitōryū: Sai Kuru! (Two Sword Style: Rhino Resolve!)"**

He pointed up both of his swords, at the height of Orochimaru's head, and spun around, trying to incapitate him. The Snake Sannin dodged the first few spins, and substituted himself with a log, which was cut clean by the swords. At the other side of the room, his opponent threw a shuriken.

The Jinchuuriki heard the swirling of the weapon and easily sidestepped it, but missed the sound of the metal embedding itself into wood.

 **"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.",** the Snake Sannin muttered, while the weapon, and its thousand clones turned around and came swirling at Naruto once again.

Seeing the rain of weapons, he did a few handseals and shouted: **"Fuuton: Kaze no Kabe! (Wind Style: Wind Wall)"**

A wall of wind materialized in front of the redhead, and caught the numerous shuriken, but left him open for a slash of Kasanagi.

Naruto winced and immediately felt as if all of his veins were burning.

"Poison.", Orochimaru said, knowing why the redhead was confused. "Hehe, the poison of Manda, if I may add. It takes a surely devastating effect on the body."

Naruto gritted his teeth in pain, and Orochimaru smirked. The next second, the Snake Sannin was stabbed right through his heart by a chakra scalpel, and kicked into the air by the Kabuto puppet.

Naruto took the opportunity, and with a quick dash, was slicing through Orochimaru.

 **"Ittōryū: Saigo no Kokyū! (One Sword Style: Last Breath!)"**

His sword covered in wind chakra, he slammmed it into Orochimaru's head, causing the body to descend into the ground and creating a small crater.

The body of Orochimaru laid on the ground unmoving, until it suddenly opened its mouth and released a new Orochimaru, unharmed and without a scratch.

"Kukuku, those are surely interesting techniques you have, they haven't been used for quite a while. You wouldn't happen to offer yourself to share them with me?"

Naruto again gritted his teeth, while Kankuro just frowned at the warrior inf front of them.

 _'Use me, you know you have to!'_

Feeling as if a gate was holding back an incredible flood in his mind, and knowing how the posion still spread through his body, he cursed and opened the gate, releasing the thoughts of blood and killing.

And then, everything was a blur.

Naruto screamed in pain as his head was overwhelmed and his skin turned red. Before any of two confused persons in the room could react, they heard two voices from Naruto, his normal one and a deep, demonic one.

 **"Umbral Trespass!"**

The jinchuuriki disappeared into three little red clouds, which quickly flew into Orochimaru. When they entered him, two of Naruto's swords appeared above his head, hovering.

'What's this?', the Snake Sannin thought.

The room was filled with Naruto's sinister laugh, until he materialized above the head of his opponent again, grabbed his swords and slashed a clean line through Orochimaru, who was barely able to evade a lethal blow.

Cursing in pain, Orochimaru pointed his arms towards the enraged fighter, snakes leaving them and his mouth, wrapping around Naruto.

 **"Mandara no Jin! (Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes)",** the Snake Sannin yelled, burying the now red-skinned warrior in his snakes.

Though his body was more and more posioned and bitten all around, his will, now amplified by the demonic powers of the sword and two tails of Kyuubi, refused to falter. Kankuro tried to cut through the snakes with the chakra scalpel, but to no avail. They came more than they were destroyed.

'He's... he's struggling against the snake's. No, he will release himself!', the Sannin panicked, concentrating even more snakes into his jutsu.

But then, he was surprised again.

 _BOOOOOOM!_

To his left the wall was blown off by a gigantic explosion, causing all three in the room to be thrown away, and the snakes to disappear.

Looking towards the big cloud of smoke, Orochimaru could only see the outlines of two persons, standing on a giant bird.

From the cloud, dozens of yellow chains of chakra emerged and wrapped themselves around Naruto, who still thrashed violently and screamed, and Kankuro, pulling them away.

"I have them, let's hurry up and leave!" Karin yelled and Deidara nodded, the bird of clay ascending and flying away, while Naruto and Kankuro hung down, only held by Karin's chains.

Orochimaru watched the retreating people after he stood up again. His eyes narrowed after he saw who it was.

'Karin, and that blonde idiot? What a strange bunch he has gathered there.', he thought.

Karin meanwhile healed the injured and poisoned Naruto, though still with his restraints, while also calming his mind with another healing jutsu.

Naruto visibly calmed down and ceased his thrashing, becoming still. Then, he opened his red eyes again, looking very tired.

"Hey guys, what happened?", he said hoarsely.

"I don't know man, something took over you back there with Orochimaru, maybe the Kyuubi. Though, it didn't look like it.", Kankuro said.

"Ok.. wait, what's with the Sound village?"

"Hehe, look down and you all will see.", Deidara chuckled.

Everybody looked down to see the crowd gathered at the mansion of the Otokage. Obviously, the first explosion has gained a lot of attention.

Deidara looked through the hole he created previously, and saw Orochimaru still standing there, looking above him.

Winking at him with a cocky grin on his face, he threw a little mass of clay down at the Otokage mansion, down to the still wondering crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen!", Deidara yelled on his retreating bird, causing everyone to look at it him "Do you like art? I hope so, cause with me so close to you, you should always keep in mind that art is an explosion!"

The crowd wondered what the statement meant and Orochimaru widened his eyes.

'Oh no.'

Deidara laughed maniacally, and yelled finally:

"Finally this village gets what it deserves, for its actions and existence. **Bokuton: C3!"**

The little mass of clay expanded into a gigantic mass of clay, nearly the size of the Otokage mansion itself.

Then, it exploded.

The entirely village was quickly engulfed in something that resembled a sun which flew into the earth. The wind gust from the explosion was almost enough to throw everyone off the bird.

"Dude, what the fuck is that? This is insane! How can someone possibly create such an explosion?" Kankuro yelled at Deidara, the explosion still going on, without a sign of stopping.

The blonde moved his right index finger in a 'no no' motion and answered: "Just like magicians, artists never tell their secrets."

Meanwhile the two redhead were back at healing and being healed again.

"At last, this village of criminals has found an end.", Naruto whispered, and passed out from exhaustion.

Karin nodded, and remembered another task. Talking to Chusei, she strapped two scrolls there. A storage scroll, and a letter.

"Chusei, you need to fly to the office of the Kazekage in Suna, quickly. He will need those scrolls before we reach him."

 _'Yes, milady.',_ Chusei said, while taking off to Sunagakure in a far greater pace then the clay bird.

She looked at her patient and smiled, continiung to stabilize him. She had family again, and Otogakure was histlry. Maybe, this squad of strange, obnoxious loudmouths wasn't that bad.

 _A/N: Hey guys. I tried to put more effort into the fight scene, going more into detail. Please tell me if I succeeded, and maybe give me some tips you think are necessary. Review please, and see you next time._


	8. Ashes to ashes

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the next chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Sorry for the long wait, but I had a few personal things to take care of._ _And since I never said it, I'll say it here, once. I don't own Naruto or any characters from the Naruto canon._

 _ **loca (Guest):** Naruto is one of my favourite characters of the anime, and Tsunade is my bae, so NaruTsu is actually my favourite shipping. Yes, I very much like the canon story of Naruto and Tsunade, but this is obviously fiction, so I write those things I think would be cool. Yes, if Tsunade would love again in the canon, it would probably be Jiraiya, but_

 _1\. This is fiction, and I clearly marked it as a NaruTsu story._

 _2\. It was Naruto who saved, changed, and brought back Tsunade, not Jiraiya._

 _I understand the point of the question, but that's simply the way I like it. Deal with it._

 _Anyways, here's the new chapter:_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sunagakure Council_

"What?!? This is an outrage! Denying someone his birthrights, even the knowledge of his parents' identity and sending the same person on a suicide mission against direct subordinates of a wanted missing-nin, that's unbelievable. It may sound hypocritical, given the more than wrong treatment we gave our jinchuuriki and Lord Kazekage in the past, but at least we had a few tiny shreds of humanity.", shouted a civilian, and a member of the Sunagakure Civilian Council.

"We should cut the ties with this village. I never liked it anyway.", muttered an elder by the name of Lady Chiyo.

"We should not act too abruptly. To instantly declare hostility against the Hidden Leaf Village, for an act we almost comitted to the full extent ourselves, would be an overreaction.", a member of the Shinobi Council replied to the elders' request.

"This is true.", the calm and emotionless voice of the red-haired Kazekage called out. "and I know that Naruto would not want to cause problems to Suna that he understands as his own, he is very humble about that. However, I will not let that slide without any consequences. Hereby, I request to revoke our ally status to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and to change it to a neutral status. If we can't trust them to treat one of their kind with a minimum of respect, how should we know if they would treat our shinobi any different on the battlefield? Our strong ties with Kiri are enough to compensate any potential loss of trade.", he continued, getting mostly understanding nods, and a few frustrated faces which hoped for a harsher treatment. Naruto's way of changing the psychopathic jailor of the One Tails into a still emotionless, but more empathetic human being had been the only connection they felt for Konohagakure.

"Everyone in favor of neutrality?", Gaara asked, getting all the hands from his council.

"Everyone against?", he asked, getting no hands at all.

"Then from this moment on, Konoha and Suna are neutral. Matsuri, please send a messenger bird with my declaration and reasons for the annulled alliance to the office of the Hokage.", the Shukaku jinchuuriki ordered his assistant with short brown hair, a typical Suna robe and rope darts equipped at her waist, and gave her a scroll.

"Hai, Kazekage-sama.", she stammered a bit, leaving the council chambers.

"This meeting is closed, thank you for your patience.", the redhead finalized, causing everyone to bow slightly and leave into their respective directions.

Meanwhile, he went to his Kazekage office, and met his assistant there again. He nodded to her, while she nodded and blushed at him, hurrying out of the hallway.

'Huh, I'm wondering why she's always doing that.', he thought.

He entered his office, and noticed the familiar looking eagle at the window.

'Isn't that Naruto's bird?', he thought, walking over to it and taking the scrolls it carried, while the bird flew away again.

'A letter?', the Kazekage thought and opened it.

 _Dear Kazekage-sama,_

 _My name is Karin Uzumaki, former head medic of Otogakure and, as I found out, cousin of Naruto Uzumaki. As my cousin told me and certainly you already, he was searching for experiments from Orochimaru. If this letter reaches you, it means that our mission was a success and we will return to Sunagakure soon. Additionally to this letter, I will sent the records of Orochimarus experiments, and highlight the specific parts that are most important to Naruto. I humbly request you, Kazekage-sama, to prepare your leading scientists and medics for Naruto's arrival. As you might have already guessed, Naruto wants to undergo these experiments himself. Given that he is a jinchuuriki, especially of the mightiest Bijuu, and the official heir of the Uzumaki clan, his stamina and recovery rate is inhuman, and therefore the experiments should go easy._

 _Yours sincerely_

 _Karin Uzumaki_

 _P.S.: Naruto was infected with the poison of Manda, the Snake Boss. I am able to_ _stabilize him, but without a surgical room, the posion will stay in his system._

'He wants to do these experiments on himself? That is certainly unexpected.'

"Temari.", Gaara called out.

A few seconds later, his sister walked into the room.

"Yes, Gaara?"

"Please go to the Central Hospital of Suna and the Institute of Science. Find the leading doctors and scientists and tell them to be here tomorrorow, 6 a.m. sharp.

"Ok.", his sister nodded and went off.

'Now, let me see those experiments. What have you planned, brother?', Gaara said, opening the first page of the first file.

[Subject #137

Name: Tenzo (birth name), today Yamato

Type of experiment: Infusion of Kekkei Genkai

Type of Kekkei Genkai: Wood Style by Hashirama Senju, Shodai Hokage of Konohagakure

Process: Continous adaptation of Subject #137's cell structure and genetic coding to Hashirama Senju, with the addition of his actual genes. Subject #137 is the only known survivor of this process.

Result: Successful transfer of the Wood Style Kekkei Genkai.

Current status of Subject #137: Ninja of the Village Hidden in the Leaves

WARNING: CRTICAL FAILURE RATE. DANGER LEVEL RED!]

'I guess those are his cells then.', the Kazekage thought, holding the flask from Orochimaru's mansion.

He carefully dropped the scroll and flask onto his desk, and opened the second file.

[Subject #248

Name: Kidomaru

Type of experiment: Animal-human crossing

Animal: Spider

Process: Infusion of spider blood, poison and DNA, molding of human and animal genetic information with chakra. A person with enormous chakra reserves required.

Result: Controlled growth of up to 4 additional arms, manipulation of spider webs, usable as weapons.

Current status of Subject #248: Dead

WARNING: CONSTANT ATTENTION OF ADVANCED MEDIC NEEDED. SPIDER POISON CAN CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE. WITH MEDIC, DANGER LEVEL YELLOW.]

Gaara then switched his attention to the circles and notes Karin added to the file.

[Only controlled growth of 2 additional arms required, more arms and all other abilities from spiders NOT wanted.]

'4 arms and a Kekkei Genkai? Naruto sure aimed high. He somehow does always.', Gaara thought, amused.

 ** _'That's the influence of Kurama, for sure. He always wanted everything, and do the unthinkable.' ,_** Shukaku thought inside of Gaara's mindscape, amused as well.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Gate of_ _Sunagakure, the next morning_

"Quick, I need a surgical room. Manda's poison is still in his system.", Karin said after she saw the group of people staning with Gaara, assuming they were the doctors and scientists she requested.

Gaara, Temari, the doctors and scientists, Kankuro, Deidara, Karin and an unconscious Naruto were brought to an emergency room in the hospital.

Most of the people went inside, but some were blocked.

"I'm sorry, only the staff of the Kazekage, Karin Uzumaki and the Kazekage himself are allowed in this room now."

Understanding, though still reluctantly, everyone agreed. Gaara went in for half an hour to look at his best friend with a concerned face, and then left the room to find Temari, Kankuro and Deidara.

"He seems to come along fine, the Kyuubi's definetely doing his work.", the Kazekage informed the group, relieving their concerns.

"You", Gaara said, looking at Deidara "you are the mercenary Naruto and Kankuro hired, right?"

Deidara nodded.

"Then let's go into my office, we will discuss the payment for you helping Naruto. That's the minimum I can do for him at the moment."

Both of them started to walk, until Kankuro interrupted the two.

"Hey, wait."

The retreating figures turned back to the puppet user, whoo looked into Deidara's eyes.

"That move you pulled off back there...it's frightening as hell, but it means you're pretty damn strong. You're not that bad, man. You should join the Mercenary Guild of Suna. Naruto wanted to join Suna later, too, and I'm sure Karin would come with us as well. It would be awesome to have you in our squad.", the Sand Sibling said, extending his hand in a way a businessman would.

Deidara looked onto the hand with a deep, thoughtful hand. Those people were the first ones who accepted his, addmitedly frightening Kekkei Genkai, and with a group full of obnoxious loudmouths like he was one, he felt a sense of belonging. Grinning cockily, he shook Kankuro's hand with an equally strong grip.

"Sure, as long as I get to blow up something on a regular basis."

The two were interrupted by Karin leaving the room Naruto currently resided in.

"So guys, I'm glad to say Naruto's fine. We have extracted the poison of Manda. His other injuries are not that bad, he should be fine tomorrow."

"But that's not all, right? I heard he wanted to undergo the experiments he stole from Orochimaru?", Temari asked the redhead medic, who nodded.

"That's true, but thankfully, the files are very detailed, and Naruto together with the Kyuubi has a very strong body. We will need 24 hours at most for the wanted results. That reminds me of something else: We will need you now, Kazekage-sama. A lot of chakra is required for one of the experiments, and the chakra from you and the tailed beast inside of you should he more than enough."

Gaara nodded and replied:

"Yes, I will do that, but first, I officially offer both of you, Karin Uzumaki and you..."

"Deidara.", the man spoken of said.

"and Deidara a place amongst the Mercenary Guild of Sunagakure. You will automatically get the last known rank you possessed.", the Kazekage said, and noticed the state of Deidara's hitai-ate, and the lack of one from Karin.

"Since I guess you being here is not in harmony with your last village, I will research you in the bingo books of Iwagakure and..."

"Kusagakure.", Karin finished this time.

"Yes, exactly. Deidara already accepted his offer, do you do too, Karin Uzumaki?"

She thought of it, and asked: "Is Naruto a part of the guild as well?"

"No, he said he wanted to finish two things first, because he couldn't do that as a force part of a shinobi village. Those experiments were the first thing he wanted to do. I want to know what the second thing is, though. Still, he wanted to join as a Genin afterwards, and if you all join the guild, I'm sure he will, too."

She nodded, and finalized her decision while pushing up her glasses.

"Ok then, count me in. Thank you, Kazekage-sama."

Gaara nodded, while holding up his hand and waving it dismissingly.

"Please, Gaara is just fine. Friends of Naruto, and especially family of Naruto, are my friends as well. I will prepare your contracts and headbands, you can come to take them in the evening. Deidara, I'm afraid we will have to postpone your payment until then, my presence is still needed here."

"No problem, I can wait for a bit. More time to prepare my next piece of art, yeah!", Deidara exclaimed, while Kankuro and Karin sweatdropped, and Temari and Gaara looked confused. His previous partners knew exactly what he meant with art.

"Alright then, please lead me to Naruto, Karin. Kankuro, Temari, please let the cooks set up a banquet for tomorrow, I want to celebrate my brother's survival once he leaves the hospital.", the Suna leader said, while Karin walked back into the operation room, Temari and Kankuro left to the Sabaku estate, preparing their get together, and Deidara walked back to the camp of his new squad, making new charges of clay for his next possible fights, and also a few nice traps, just in case someone would want to interfere with his art.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The next morning_

The Hokage groaned. Paperwork, the bane of her existence. It piled itself up without any hope of its growth slowing down. She downed a large gulp of sake, and looked at all of the pictures standing on her desk. The one of her brother Nawaki, the one of her dead lover Dan, and of course, the photo with her, Jiraiya and Naruto. She sighed with a shaky breath, until she was interrupted.

"Tsunade-sama!", Shizune yelled, barging into the office of the Hokage.

"Not so loud, Shizune.", the busty blonde said, gripping her head from her headache.

"Sorry, but I have a message that will more than likely spike your interest."

"And what would that be?", Tsunade said uninterestdly, taking another sip of her bottle of sake.

"Orochimaru's village...it has been completely destroyed."

The drinking Hokage immediately spit out the gulp of sake in her mouth and coughed a few seconds afterwards.

"WHAT?!? What do you mean destroyed?", she asked, completely flabbergasted.

"With destroyed, I mean destroyed. One of Jiraiya's spies said the village was annihillated in an explosion, and that four people left the village from the sky."

"Explosion? Sky? But how?"

"Here, the Daimyo of Rice Country added entries into their Bingo Book. Apparently there were still witnesses who survived.", the Hokage's assistant said, handing the files over to her leader, which she inspected then.

[ _Name: Sabaku no Kankuro_

 _Current village: Sunagakure_

 _Appearance: Black cat-like suit, violet face paintings, scrolls on his back, Sunagakure hitai-ate, puppets_

 _Rank: B_

 _Abilites: Puppet master_

 _Wanted for infiltration of Otogakure, the Otokage mansion_ _, stealing classified information, and fighting the Otokage_

 _Bounty: 50.000 Ryo]_

 _[Name: Karin Uzumaki_

 _Current village: -_

 _Last associated village: Otogakure_

 _Appearance: Long red rair, red eyes, black glasses, violet shirt, black short pants_

 _Rank: B_

 _Abilities: Advanced medic, Uzumaki 'Chakra Chains' bloodline_

 _Wanted for treason against the Rice Daimyo and Otogakure, and the coordinated escape with wanted criminals_

 _Bounty: 60.000 Ryo]_

 _[Name: Deidara_

 _Current village: -_

 _Last associated village: Iwagakure_

 _Appearance: Long blonde hair, covering the left eye, beige clothes, concealing most of his body, slashed Iwagakure hitai-ate_

 _Rank: S_

 _Abilities: 'Bokuton' bloodline_

 _Wanted for the destruction of Otogakure and the massacre on Oto ninja_

 _WARNING: CAPABLE OF DESTROYING AN ENTIRE VILLAGE ALONE, ENGAGE WITH UTMOST CARE_

 _Bounty: 200.000 Ryo]_

 _[Name: Unknown_

 _Current village: -_

 _Last associated village: Unknown, probably Konohagakure_

 _Appearance: Spiky and long red hair, red eyes with black vertical slits, sleeveless black shirt, black pants and black face mask, slashed Konohagakure hitai-ate, 4 swords_

 _Rank: S_

 _Abilities: Advanced Kenjutsu, Fuuiton_

 _Wanted for the infiltration of Otogakure, the Otokage mansion, stealing classified information and fighting against the Otokage_

 _WARNING: IN POSSESSION OF YET UNKNOWN POWERS. ENGAGE WITH UTMOST CARE_

 _Bounty: 100.000 Ryo]_

"Sabaku no Kankuro, isn't that the brother of the Kazekage, Gaara? What did he have to do with all of that?", the Hokage wondered.

"We only know that Kankuro joined the Mercenary Guild of Sunagakure 3 years ago, so it's possible he was hired for the job."

The Hokage nodded, and then asked:

"Red hair and red eyes? Advanced Kenjutsu and in possession of 4 swords? I can't remember us having such a ninja, Shizune. Do you?"

The assistant shook her head, and replied: "Sorry Tsunade-sama, I don't know that person."

"Did Jiraiya's spies possibly find out what happened to Orochimaru?"

Shizune, again, shook her head.

"No. It is likely that he died in the explosion."

Tsunade nodded.

"We still need to be careful about him, he is not one to die easily, it is possible he's alive. Inform me when there's new information."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama. And here, you have a letter from the Kazekage.", Shizune said, handing her the envelope.

"Thank you, Shizune, you're dismissed."

After her assistant left, she opened the letter and began to read it.

 _Dear Hokage-sama,_

 _recently, I have been informed that my close friend Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze has never once been informed about his heritage, and that his father was none other than a Hokage. To deny a gentle soul, such as my brother was one, the knowledge and ownings of his heritage willingly, ignoring the already harsh treatment he received, a procedure I know all too well, is, to put it simply, outrageous. Especially the close relationship the two of you had would lead me to think you would inform a 14-year old kid about his mother and father. Since this is a signal for me that Konoha apparently does not value its citizens, neither as humans nor as ninja, in an even worse way Suna did previously, I hereby revoke our ally status and declare Sunagakure and Konohagakure neutral._

 _I hope Konoha finds the path back to its Will of Fire again._

 _Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage of Sunagakure no sato_

At the end of the letter, Tsunade cried soft and silent tears, which gently ran down her Genjutsu-covere, flawless face. Every sentence of the Kazekage hurt and felt like a stab to her heart. He was right, and she knew it. Of course it said in the files of her favourite blonde knucklehead who his father and mother were, together with the strict order to not tell him who they were. It broke her heart to not do it, but she knew it was an order by the Sandaime himself. Soo the Jonin who knew of Naruto's parents and her lived up to it.

It was obvious that the letter was very personal for the Kazekage as well. Heck, the reason why he was made Kazekage in the first place was because of how Naruto changed Gaara during the Chuunin Exams. When he first arrived at the cemetery of Konoha, he simply ignored all the sorrowful and pitiful looks

from the people, but especially the ones that the rookies, Team Gai, their senseis and all the other people formerly closer to Naruto, including Tsunade herself, gave him. He just walked silently to his grave, Kankuro and Temari by his side.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXC**

F _lashback_

 _Every attempt to talk to him was met with a sickening silence, until he reached the grave and looked at it with a emotionless, but slightly disgusted face. It was impossible, that the first person he really shared a bond with besides his siblings now laid six feet beneath him in a grave._ _Gently, he went on both of his knees, while both of his siblings placed a comforting hand on his shoulders, a look of sadness on both of their faces._ _The redhead ran his fingers over the name of his fallen brother gently, tracing every letter, every curve of the three words embedded in stone._

 _"What have they done to you, brother?", he asked._

 _"I hope the one responsible for this has been taken care of.", he started, standing up and slowly leaving again._

 _"Because if it hasn't, I will find him myself, and show him a second time why I'm called the 'Ultimate Weapon of the Hidden Sand Village'." he finished, seething, leaving as fast as he entered._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sunagakure_

'Ugh, I feel like shit.', a certain rehead groaned in his mind, slowly opening his eyes. He was greeted with a plain white ceiling, and immediately recognized the structure of the unknown room, a hospital room.

"Ah, good morning, Mr. Uzumaki Namikaze.", he heard and turned around, spotting a middle-aged man in a white robe, apparently his doctor.

"We have finalized all your requested experiments, and your body has endured them quite well. Here, I have the instructions from the files on how you start to train your new abilities. Since Kyuubi did a fine job to rebuild your body again, you're free to leave when you wish. The Kazekage invited you to a banquet in his estate. Turn right after you left the hospital, and you should already see it."

"Alright, thanks doctor.", Naruto replied a bit hoarsely, grabbed the papers and stretched himself. Everything felt normal.

'Well then, let's see Gaara.', he thought, leaving the hopsital in his battle gear again, and walked towards the Sabaku estate.

Immediately, he saw the looks people gave him. Friendly smiles, some mercenaries even greeted him with a pat on the back after hearing what he accomplished in Sound from Kankuro.

'Wow, those people are so warm-hearted around here.', he thought in awe, until he reached the Sabaku estate.

The jinchuuriki knocked on the door and waited, until a girl around his age opened the door.

"Oh, hello, you must be Naruto-san."

"Please, just Naruto is fine.", he replied to the kind girl.

"Ok Naruto, the Kazekage is waiting for you inside. Your partners are here, too.", she said, letting him into the mansion.

"The dining hall is down the corridor here.", she instructed, following the guest.

Naruto opened the gate and saw a monstrous hall, a table for 50 people, full of food, walls full of gold and paintings from former Sabaku family members, a cozy looking fireplace, and Deidara, Karin, Kankuro, Temari and Gaara sitting at the end of the table.

"Ah Naruto, it's good to see you're on your feet again.", Gaara said, smiling slightly as Naruto took the seat next to him, while Chusei flew from Karin's shoulder onto his. He nuzzled his head playfully, while Naruto chuckled a bit and scratched his eagle's head affectionately.

"Yeah, you know me, I can't stay lying down too long.", the other jinchuuriki said, grinning sheepishly.

"Thank you for bringing him here Matsuri. Please, have a seat.", the Kazekage said with an emotionless yet gentle voice.

"B-but Gaara-sama..", she stammered.

"Stop it Matsuri, how many times have I told you it's Gaara? Not Lord Kazekage, not Gaara-sama, just Gaara.", he ordered sternly.

His assitant blushed, and nodded, something everyone in the room besides Gaara and Naruto seemed to notice.

"Eh, strange. Some people like to be addressed so submissively by pretty girls, you know?", Deidara mused, causing Kankuro, Temari and Karin to laugh, Matsuri to blush even harder, and Naruto and Gaara to just look more confused.

"What do you mean?", the confused Kazekage asked.

"Ah, nothing. Old joke amongst mercenaries.", Deidara answered dismissingly.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot. Naruto, please greet two of our new Jonin and parts of the Mercenary Guild of Sunagakure.", the Shukaku jinchuuriki said, waving to Deidara and Karin.

"Whaaat, you're Jonin?", Naruto asked in awe.

"Yeah, our last rank was Jonin, so we were immdediately were made Jonin of Suna.", Karin explained to her cousin.

"And now you're both mercenaries as well?"

"Yes Naruto, they will be in a cell with me. We are missing one fighter though, and that's you.", Kankuro added.

"Yes, but before I will join you, I still have to take care of one thing.", Naruto said, while digging into his food greedily.

"So you have a new target, and where might that be if I may ask?", the intrigued Suna leader asked.

Naruto took a gulp from his drink, and replied in one word, one single word that spoke complete stories, most of them wishing to never be told again.

"Konoha."

 _A/N: So guys, sorry it took me so long and that there was no real action in this chapter, but as you can tell, there will be in the next chapter. Hope you like the experiments I made him choose. I'll go on vacation today, and afterwards I have a few driving lessons, but I'll try to write more. See you next time._


	9. Old and new legacy

_A/N: Hello guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. First of all, a few questions answered:_

 _ **Guest:** In Suna, Naruto's only friend outside of Konoha, Gaara, lives. So it would be the smartest choice from my point of view to join Suna when defecting from Konoha._

 _ **Plasma Dragon 312:** There's no need to spare anyone, because he won't attack Konoha like he did with Oto. His target is IN Konoha, not Konoha as a whole._

 _ **Uzumaki spiral:** It's very unfortunate that you don't like my story, though you made it quite far for not liking it._

 _About the laziness: You're somehow right. I try to write chapters with not less than 3k words, since the chapters from my first fic were very short from time to time. It's really exhausting in a mental sense to write such long chapters, so there are a few holes in it (I already said, I write on instinct, and since I don't remember the original scenes from the anime that well all the time, characters are sometimes a little OOC, like Temari now. Though I think it's ok to be a little OOC when someone was supposed to be dead for three years.)._ _Yes, the bonding between Naruto, Kankuro and Temari may be a little too fast (Gaara not, they share their special jinchuuriki bond which I think is perfectly fine how I did it, e.g. calling him brother etc.), but: they of course have a special place for Naruto, too, since he is the one who pretty much saved their lives and gave them their little brother back (Gaara even threatened Kankuro once, as far as I can remember). Still: Naruto and Kankuro will have some more bonding on the battlefield, and Temari is a rather unimportant character in this fic, so her OOC-ness won't hurt too much._

 _About the language: I'm sorry, I try my best to write in a nice English, but I'm not a native speaker, so I'm a bit limited._

 _Naruto told the Kyuubi he wants other eyes and hair because he might be recognized with his natural colours._

 _Gaara punched Naruto, and only one door was seperating them from Kankuro, so he heard it. But yes, it was more an act of convenience so that Kankuro could be added to the story._

 _Oh and by the way, I corrected "The rivers will run red" and "The Beginning". Now, Hinata is in the story as well. This will be a fiction that will be longer than my first, and it's wrong to exclude her entirely._

 _Anyways, here's the new chapter. Enjoy_.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sabaku estate_

"Konoha? What business do you have in Konoha?", Gaara asked, intrigued.

"More to blow up?", Deidara added, hopefully.

"No, no I don't want to blow up Konoha. There are people in Konoha I do care about, and I'm in no position to threaten them or destroy the village they happily live in. As for my business there: Konoha denied me what's rightfully mine, and I fully intend to take it back.", the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki clarified.

"And what is that?", Temari asked her guest.

"My heritage. A ghost from a man who lived three generations ago in a secret, hidden temple on the bottom of a lake was the one who told me for the very first time who my parents are. I mean can you believe it? The son of the Hero of Konoha, and not a single person minds telling me about it?", he ranted, getting more and more aggressive and already gripping his swords.

He breathed, and calmed down again, slowly letting go of the hilts of his weapons.

"Anyways, I know where the Namikaze estates are standing. I will go there, take everything from my father and maybe my mother that I can find inside, and come back. I won't let my legacy stay in this rotten place any longer than necessary. I will bring everything here, and build up my new life, now as a man of fortune, together with my new partners, friends and family.", he finished, causing Deidara, Kankuro and Karin to smile.

He smiled briefly as well, but his face quickly turned serious.

"That's why I'll have to go alone. You're all shinobi of Suna. Mercenaries or not, it will cause problems with Konoha, and they are very strong."

"True, but we're not allied with them anymore.", the Kazekage said, to which Naruto replied with a confused stare.

"You were the reason we were allied in the first place. After you told me everything when you first reached Suna, I immediately knew that I can't let us be allied with them anymore. The council agreed.", the Kazekage explained.

"You did not have to do that."

"Yes, I did. That was the breaking point, and I decided to take the necessary steps.", Gaara told his friend.

"Still, I can't cause problems to Suna before I'm a ninja of Suna. To destroy Oto was for the common good as well, but this problem with Konoha is purely personal, and I'll do it myself."

"But how do you get into that house?", Deidara asked the former Leaf-nin.

"If it's a family estate like our one here, than a drop of blood is enough to unseal the door and let him into the house.", Kankuro answered the Bokuton user.

"And don't worry: I've outrun the ANBU of Konoha since I am six, I know every little crevice of this place. If someone's perfect for infiltrating Konoha, it's me. Plus, I won't be completely alone.", the knucklehead said, a cheeky grin plastered on his face, while his eagle made a mighty screech.

' _They will see what a proper hunter is capable of',_ Chusei told Naruto, who nodded, agreeing.

"Well then, we will prepare a few rations for you, so you can start your journey to Fire country tomorrow in the morning. All of you can stay here today, especially after your last mission you need a proper rest.", Gaara offered friendly, yet sternly.

"Speaking of which, what's with those experiments you stole? Did they work?", the puppet user asked his future partner.

"Yes they did. I left him the information on how to train his new abilities.", the former Oto medic told Kankuro.

"What were those experiments anyways? You never told us.", Temari asked interested, with Matsuri also listenting up.

"The first is the Mokuton (Wood Style), the Kekkei Genkai of the Shodai Hokage and my master, Hashirama Senju. The second one is from Kidomaru, one of the Sound Four we fought at the invasion during the Chuunin exams. Specifically: I can now grow two additional arms from my shoulder blades.", he said, causing the two girls to widen their eyes.

"A bloodline and two additional arms, you can really do that?", Temari asked.

"I can try the arms, it says I have to focus chakra into my shoulder blades, and that I will start to feel it when I grow new arms.", he referred from the instruction on the given piece of paper.

He followed the instruction, and actually succeeded in growing two additional, healthy looking arms, which he bent so the arms were on the height just above his head. Gaara's sister gaped like a fish, and his assistant fainted from shock.

"How does that feel?", Deidara asked the Jinchuuriki.

"Strange. It feels like it will be hard to coordinate them, and they feel as if they are...I don't know...more..."

"Flexible?", Karin concluded, getting a nod from her cousin.

"That's the specialty of these arms. You're able to bend them into more unnatural shapes, you can even spin them around and everything's fine, since your muscles and bones are all made from chakra.", she finished her explanation, pushing up her glasses.

"Wow, cool.", he said, trying to move all four arms.

"So that's the reason you have four swords, right?", the Kazekage asked, while helping up a now conscious and again blushing Matsuri back into her seat.

"Yep, let me just try to grab them once."

Then, everyone watched as he slowly led each hand to one hilt, and afterwards, one by one, unsheathed the swords. He tried to spin his two artificial arms, and was actually able to spin them around his wrist, creating two deadly razor blades (for everyone who didn't already, imagine General Grievous).

"Dude, you will be a monster on the battlefield like that, and I mean that in the good sense.", Kankuro stated, getting agreeing nods from everyone.

Naruto sheathed back his swords, and cut off the chakra from his additional arms, causing them to grow back and entirely dispell.

"Yeah, I just need a little time to get used to it. I'll skip the Mokuton techniques now and learn them once I've returned. To learn a completely new element, a Kekkei Genkai, too, won't be that easy.", the Jinchuuriki told his friends, sitting back down to eat again.

"Well then, a toast to the newest mercenary cell of Suna, and hopefully, our next member.", Kankuro spoke, raising his glass, which everybody followed suit, clinking their glasses in the middle.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The mext morning_

Naruto stood at the gate of Sunagakure, his battle gear and new features well hidden by a black cloak, which only revealed his red canine eyes. The hood on the cloak concealed his red mane.

"Are you sure you don't want our help out there?", Kankuro asked the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.

"Yes, I will take care of this myself.", Naruto answered with steely eyes.

"Well then, make sure you come back in one piece, gaki. It would be a shame to already lose such a promising artist.", Deidara said with a cocky grin.

"Don't worry, I won't go down that easy.", Naruto countered with his foxy grin.

"Good look Naruto, please be safe.", Gaara told his fellow demon container.

"Please don't do anything stupid.", Karin added worriedly.

"I will, Gaara, Karin-chan, and prepare a hitai-ate for me.", he replied, turning around. His destination: Konohagakure.

He started his walk through the endless dunes of Wind Country, and his thoughts drifted to his destination.

He knew that after some time, he would have some interaction with the Leaf again. It wasn't one of the strongest Shinobi countries for nothing, their influence had a wide range.

He smiled thinking about the people he cared about. Ayame and Teuchi Ichiraku, who were always nice and supportive, even though he obviously didn't have enough money to buy anything from them in the masses he did. Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon, who looked up to him like a brother. Hinata, who was also nice, but shy, and a bit weird. Plus, she always seemed to have a fever. Poor girl. Iruka, who was the first ninja besides the Sandaime to accept him as a human, even if he wasn't sure if he knew about Naruto's parents. Rock Lee, who was his best friend from the Konoha 11.

Rock Lee was, without a doubt, the most optimistic person he had ever met. Together, they would run laps around the village, Naruto laughing like an idiot while Lee yelled about his burning flames of youth. Both were, for the normal eye, strange people, but they understood each other very well.

Shizune, who was such a gentle person. To him, she was like a big sister who always protected him, even in the little time they knew each other, and besides Tsunade, she was the only advanced medic who wouldn't hesitate to treat him once injured.

'Baa-chan', Naruto frowned thinking of the old woman. He still couldn't believe that she did not tell him about his parents, even though she knew who they were. He thought that she would somehow be grateful for what he did to her, though apparently, it was not enough.

Even the Third, his own Jiji, hid their identity from him. He did not bring himself to really hate him, since he did so much for him in the time he was alive, but it still left him with an ill feeling.

'Now's not the time to dwell on the past', he thought, shaking his head 'I've got a mission to do.'

With that final thought, he took off with a greater pace.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _A few days later_

It was night. The sky was bright with countless stars, some stronger than others. You could hear the faint chirping sounds of crickets in the background, filling the night with a soothing, peaceful atmosphere. Naruto currently hid himself in the leaves of a tree, and eyed the familiar gate a few hundred metres ahead of him.

His gaze fell on the two familiar guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, who seemed to be bickering about some irrelevant thing.

The Jinchuuriki snickered. 'Some things never change.'

He took off thorugh the trees, going around the village, until he found a good spot at the Konoha wall.

"You ready, Chusei?"

 _'Yes, hunter.'_

 **"Tools of the Hunt: Eagle Flight."**

Naruto's eagle then flew into him and disappeared. In that moment, the Jinchuuriki opened his feral eyes, and started to run towards the wall at full speed. Before he made contact with it, the boy jumped into the sky, and flew into the sky, over the wall and the following houses.

'Strange...up here, the village looks so nice and peaceful.'

He quickly spotted the former home of the Yondaime Hokage, and accelareted towards it. The gusting sound of the wind filled his ears and danced around his cloak, filling him with an undeniable feeling of freedom.

 **"Kai"** , he whispered, deactivating his flying ability, and dropped directly on the roof on the royal looking mansion, while Chusei flew out of his body and landed on his shoulder again.

Immediately, the hunter felt the drawbacks of his technique. The pain in his wrists and his ankles was unbearable, and the outside world heard that through a silent scream through his gritted teeth.

 _'Everything alright, hunter?',_ his companion asked him.

"Yes, I just forgot how much that hurt.", he whispered. Trying to bear through the discomfort, he limped on the three floor building, until he found a window he could climb into.

"Hey Chusei, slash a bit into my thumb."

The eagle complied, and drew a little blood from the thumb of his human partner.

Naruto took his bleeding thumb, and smeared it across the window. Briefly, he saw a Kanji seal appearing on the window. The young man pushed against the window, which opened itself.

"You can fly around a bit Chusei, it won't take too long."

 _'Yes, hunter.'_

He found himself in a corridor with an endless amount of doors.

'Maybe he had some sort of library.', Naruro wondered, pushing open each door he saw.

Mostly, he ran across empty bedrooms, kitchens, dining or living rooms. Even a few sparring rooms or rooms for meditating, a room for drawing and multiplying seals was among the sheer infinite amount of rooms.

The staircase was the finest piece of art the hunter ever saw, even though Deidara would most likely disagree with him. The white walls were decorated with gold, there was a monstrous chandelier, with appromaxitaley one hundred lights attached to it. Sometimes, there was the sign of Konoha, but sometimes, there was just the swirl from the inside.

The Jinchhuriki widened his eyes and stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted one room on the first floor.

There, on a modest looking wooden door, was a sign with a name written on it.

It was his name.

Carefully he made his way to the door, and opened it.

The whole room looked like it was made for a toddler. The walls were painted in a calming orange tone. There was a bed, similar to a cage without a roof, there were a few toys already placed there, and a few desks with scrolls.

One scroll though caught his eye very quickly. His name stood there as well.

He opened it, and it looked like a letter, though the handwriting was very poor. It looked like it was written very fast.

 _Dear Naruto,_

 _if you read this, it means that I'm already dead. I write this as quick as possible, for the Nine-Tailed Demon Kyuubi is attacking Konoha. I don't really like my plan, but it will be necessary. I will split the chakra of the Kyuubi, and seal a part of it in me, and one in you. Right now, you're the only one who can survive Kyuubi's chakra inside him. I will never see you grow up, and your mother won't, too. It breaks my heart, but I know that together with Kyuubi's chakra, you will grow into a strong shinobi, stronger than me or your mother. To hold the Kyuubi at bay is a great task, and I feel very bad that I have to impose it on you, but I hope that Konoha will see you as a hero for your strength one day. I just know you will be strong._

 _Your mother kisses you goodbye. She says that she is heartbroken to not see her boy grow up into the srong and handsome man his father was._

 _Please Naruto, be safe. May the Will of Fire illuminate your path of life._

 _We love you_

 _Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki_ , _your mom and dad_

At the end of the letter, Naruto silently released tears, which slowly ran down.his cheek, and followed his jawline down to his chin, where it gathered and fell down onto the floor.

"He wanted me to be a hero."

 ** _"Yes kit, I remember how he looked at you after he sealed me inside of you. Even though he died, he looked proud and happy.",_** spoke the Kyuubi.

The child of the Yondaime clenched his fists and seethed in anger. If the way he was treated was normal for heroes, he did not want to know how villains would end up in Konoha. Calming himself down, he left the room again and looked for any scrolls his father might've left.

In his search he found a few more bedrooms, one room with strange masks inside it which he did not recognize, until he reached what seemed to be Minato's workplace.

Immediately, his eyes were set on a scroll that laid on the desk of the small office. He opened it and read it.

 _Dear heir of Clan Uzumaki and Namikaze,_

 _unfortunately, I built myself a reputation that made many enemies throughout the Elemental Nations. Therefore, I have set up a key precaution. On the bottom of this paper, you will find a seal that triggers other seals when activated. Every chamber, each angle of this house has such a seal. When activated with blood, those seals reverse themselves and flow into the seal on this paper. This means that it is possible to seal away the entire house, so it can be placed elsewhere if Konohagakure is unsafe. Another seal will copy and leave the outer parts of the house here, so there is no suspicion about your departure. The scrolls of my signature techniques, the Rasengan and the Hiraishin, will be sealed additionally, and they are to be found in my desk._

 _Whoever you are, stay safe, honour and protect our name_

 _Minato Namikaze, Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure_

"I can see why he was called the master of Fuuinjutsu.", Naruto thought amused, as he followed the insturctions from the scroll, drawing a bit more blood from his already wounded thumb. After he was blinded by a brief flash of light, he found himself not standing on solid ground anymore.

He looked down to see the exact soil which was also in front of the door. Everything around him was gone, only the facade of the mansion remained.

Naruto walked up the wall until he reached the very window he entered the estate with, and went up to the roof again.

"Hey Chusei, I have one more place to go to, cover my back.", Naruto ordered his flying eagle through their mind link.

 _"No problem, hunter."_

 **"Thrill of the Hunt.** "

Naruto concentrated himself, while he growled lowly.

"Grrrr, focus."

After he was fully hidden in his technique, he sprinted over the roofs of the sleeping village, flashbacks coming with every time he saw a familiar place.

The academy, Ichiraku's, even his old apartment were in sight. Then he reached his destination.

The Konoha graveyard.

He remembered the one time he was told that the Hokage and their family were buried in a seperate section, and immediately sought it out, rushing through the countless names engraved in different kinds of tombstones.

After a minute, he stumbled upon three graves. The grave of Minato Namikaze, Yondaime Hokage. The one of Kushina Uzumaki, Red Hot-Blooded Habanero.

And his, Number One Unpredictable Ninja Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze.

'Really? When I'm dead, everyone can know who my parents are? Everyone but me?', he seethed again, trying not to just release the Kyuubi and let him do his work.

He looked down onto his modest but fine looking grave, smiling at the several reminders of his childhood and time in the Leaf Village. He took the family picture he found, fully intending on hanging it into his new home.

When he saw the picture of Team 7, he frowned.

'A picture of a team that never was one? No, not with me.', the Jinchuuriki thought.

He placed a **Kyuubi Flame Seal** (the one he fought Kabuto with as well), whispered a quiet 'Moetsukiru', and let it burn in the crimson flames of the demon inside of him.

 _'Hunter, someone is behind you, she is closing in very fast.'_

Naruto immediately reacted, jumped to the side and landed with a graceful roll, dodging the deadly punch that was almost thrown into the back of his head. Naruto swore he could smell a trail of alcohol.

Slowly looking up the familiar looking green robe, he met eyes with his attacker, crimson met amber.

"Who are you? How dare you destroy a reminder of Naruto?", the strong, confident voice of the blond-haired woman in front of him rang out through the night.

" **Tools of the Hunt: Eagle's Descend.",** he whispered silently, while Chusei nodded in the air and flew into the forest.

"Answer me! ANBU!", the woman yelled with an angry face, four agents appearing on her side in a cloud of smoke.

"I'm surprised", the deep voice of Naruto started "that the Hokage would care for such a hated child. I don't recall hearing such strong words towards him while he was alive."

Inwardly wincing, Tsunade's voice shouted again.

"Tsk, what would you know about him? To me, he was one of the most important people I ever knew. You have one chance: Surrender immediately and go into prison for disturbing the dead, or die right here, right now."

'Yeah right, I received a lot of punches for being so important.'

"Too bad", the concealed Jinchuuriki spoke sinisterly "I don't really feel like doing any of those things."

The womans eyes narrowed in annoyance and she ordered: "ANBU, take him out and put him into prison."

"Hai!", they yelled out like a choir, each of them drawing their swords.

Naruto pushed himself to his feet, and narrowly dodged all of the slashes the ANBU attemped to do on him.

 **"Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough)!"**

A gust of wind appeared from behind Naruto and threw back the soldiers, which landed on their feet and slided back on the ground, some pushing their swords into the soil to control their slide.

"As much as I would like to continue our little dance, I've got places to be, and Kami be my witness, Konoha is the last place on this list.", the hooded Naruto told the five shinobi in front of him.

As if on cue, the sound of not one, but thousands of yelling eagles reached the village from the night sky. Surprised, Tsunade and her four ANBU soldiers looked up to see thousands of eagles flying, while they dropped stones with seals attached to them. The stones were only 100 metres above the earth, and they accelerated menacingly.

When the stones were on height of the ninja's head, Naruto released a loud **"HA!".** Suddendly, the stones exploded like smoke bombs, spreading the sighttaking gas throughout the whole cemetery.

"ANBU, quick! Chase after him!", the busty Hokage ordered through her coughs.

Her agents reacted and followed the sounds of quickly retreating steps, from the cemetery up to the roofs of the houses.

 ** _"Hey kit!"_**

'What?', Naruto asked the demon contianed inside of him.

 ** _"How about some music while your running? The author thinks it's cool to include music into his fiction when the time is right."_**

'Huh? Music?, asked the running Naruto. When he heard the music inside of his head, he rolled his eyes.

 _I, I, I don't wanna know your name,_

 _'Cause you don't look the same,_

 _The way you did before_

 _Ok, ok, ok you think you got a pretty face,_

 _But the rest of you is out of place,_

 _You looked all right before_.

'You think you're really fine, huh furball?', the annoyed shinobi thought.

 ** _"Yes, have fun running for your life kit."_** , the demon snickered from behind his cage.

 **"Thrill of the Hunt"** , he whispered, hiding his body at least visually.

 _Fox on the run,_

 _You scream and everybody comes a-running,_

 _Take a run and hide yourself away,_

 _Foxy on the run_

 _Foxy, fox on the run and hideaway_

'Are you finished?', he asked annoyed.

 ** _"Aww, come on, let me have my fun when I already have to be in this confinement."_** , he snickered again, with a bright, toothy grin.

The former Leaf-nin looked behind him and gritted his teeth, noticing how the ANBU still heard his steps. In front of him where less and less and houses, since he closed in to the city wall already.

'This will hurt, but I'll have to do it.'

 **"Tools of the Hunt: Eagle Flight."** His eagle companion descended head first from the skies, and flew into him. The Jinchuuriki jumped from the last house and flew over the wall, straight back into the forest he came from.

After half a minute when he noticed that his enemies weren't behind him anymore, he dropped himself into the closest tree. The young man landed on a branch, and sat down.

"Argh, damn it. My coils seem to be ok, but this HURTS.", he told his companion who, again, left his body and stood on his lap.

' _Just train it more often and it should get bett_ _er.'_

"I won't get anywhere alone today.", het muttered, and then concentrated himself to call for an animal.

A few moments later, he heard a horse under him. Carefully, he climbed down the massive tree and laid himself down on the horse, ordering it to ride back to Suna.

'And now, a nice long sleep.', the Jinchuurki thought, diving into the land of dreams.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Konohagakure_

"ANBU, where is he?", the Hokage asked sternly.

"W-we're sorry Hokage-sama, but he escaped.", one of the ninja stammered, to which their leader narrowed her eyes.

"I'm disappointed in you. You're the elite of this village, how could you let him escape? As a punishment, you will train with Might Guy and Rock Lee tomorrow in the morning."

"B-but Hokage-sama.."', one of the ninja said fearfully.

"You heard me right, now get out of my sight, and be grateful I don't demote you!", she yelled. The ANBU nodded and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

'Why would he attack the picture of Naruto and his team?', she thought sadly, while leaving her office with a bottle of sake.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sunagakure, a few days later_

Naruto walked to the building of the Suna Council. After reaching the outside walls of Suna, he was told by the guards that he was to report to the Council as soon as possible.

Entering the building, he was greeted by the familiar sight of Shinobi Council on one and Civilian Council on the other side, while the Village Elders and the Kage sat in the middle. Only now, it was in Suna and not Konoha.

"Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze", the emotionless voice of Gaara began "after a vote by the Council of Suna, you are hereby offered the rank of Genin of Sunagakure, and additionally a place in the Mercenary Guild of Sunagakure. Your cell would be Sabaku no Kankuro, Karin Uzumaki and Deidara. As an independent force, you are allowed to accept work from anyone and against anyone, but your loyalty stays with Suna. Any actions against Suna will not be tolerated. Do you accept?"

"Yes, of course!", he shouted excitedly, getting chuckles from most people and a small smile from Gaara.

"Then" he started, allearing in a swirl of sand, directly in front of him "I give myself the honour to give you your hitai-ate. Wear it with pride. This meeting is dismissed.", he finished, giving Naruto his headband who strapped it around his right arm like Deidara and Karin did.

"Hey, can you come to our camp with me? I need your help.", Naruto asked and Gaara nodded.

When they reached the camp, they were greeted by Karin, Deidara and Kankuro, who all smiled. News seemed to spread fast.

"Well, well, look who's a new mercenary of Suna!", Kankuro shouted happily.

"Heh, took you long enough, brat.", Deidara said with his cocky grin.

"I'm happy your back Naruto-kun. Did you find anything in Konoha?", his cousin asked.

"Yes, I did. Please, remove all the things that are here, tents and everything.", he requested, getting confused looks

by everyone, though his partners complied.

Naruto opened his scroll and activated the seal at the bottom with his blood, creating a huge cloud of smoke. When it went away, the Namikaze mansion in all its glory was revealed.

"Dude, the hell is that?!?", Kankuro shouted loudly.

"The mansion of Minato Namikaze. Apparently, dad was afraid that Konoha might not be safe one day, and build up this mechanism which seals away the entire house and leaves only a copy of the outer walls behind. There are so many rooms inside, and since this is rightfully my home, I took it with me. Those will be our new headquarters.", he finished.

"Heh, this will be a fine home, good job gaki.", Deidara said, patting Naruto's shoulder.

"While I'm happy that you found what you searched for, why did you need me?", the Kazekage asked his friend.

"Leaf-nin who pass this building will recognize it. Even though the outer walls are still in Konoha, they will get suspicious. I want you to make some special facade with your sand, if that's possible."

Gaara widened his eyes slightly and nodded, already enabling his sand and wrapping it against the Namikaze mansion.

"Dude, by the way, you are the leader of our cell.", Kankuro said, drawing a surprised expression from the Jinchuuriki.

"Me? Why?"

"You brought us together.", Karin started matter-of-factly. "We were lost souls in the Shinobi world, but you gave us a purpose. We are outcasts, freaks and slaves, not accepted and ridiculed. Here, we are all the same, we will be a team."

"Yeah, I agree. We all don't know each other very well yet, but we have a feeling how everyone here is. For the first time, I feel comfortable in a team, and you brought me here, gaki. So be sure to lead us like a true artist.", Deidara finished with his cocky smile, though it was more sincere than its usual version.

"We already did a few jobs, but noticed that we lack one of the most important things: A name. We need something that distinguishes us. So, my leader, who are we?", Kankuro asked Naruto, who was now deep in thought.

The redhead turned himself to his mansion, and saw the new, finished facade. It was in a deeper shade of brown, similar to the colour of wet sand. The walls were decorated with eagles, lions and other predators, and a fox and a tanuki on each side of the entrance door.

Beaming with a satisfied smile, he said:

"We are the Desert Hunt."

 _A/N: So guys, there were more words and less action than I expected, though I hope it was still enjoyable. Review please, and I will see you next time._


	10. The First Job (Part 1)

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. I'm_ _so sorry that it took me so long for the new chaoter, but I was on holiday, then I broke up with my girlfriend, now I'm already going to university, and tbh, I lost my motivation a bit. Now, though, I have a feeling that I gained my motivation back a bit. Hope you can forgive me._

 **NyaNyaKittyFace:** _Yes, this is a NaruTsunade Romance story._

 **ichika aono:** _True, it's very hard, but I try my best. Thanks for your support_

 **Crystalbullet:** _Thank you, glad you like it._

 _Anyways, here's the new chapter:_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sunagakure, Namikaze Mansion_

Everyone quickly found a nice bedroom for themselves, there was more than enough space obviously. Naruto changed a few things, so there were no Konoha signs or other symbols of alliance left inside the mansion.

The Desert Hunt prepared to initiate itself as a worthy mercenary cell. Kankuro went out to look for jobs, since his reputation in Suna as the Kazekage's brother was the best from all of them, Deidara prepared and managed the weaponry, even tagging papers with seals to various objects and weapons like Naruto requested. Karin started to manage their medical equipment, while their leader, Naruto, managed their rations, and otherwise studied his new big project: The Wood Style.

One of the very side effects of the Wood Style was his now distinct Earth affinity, and that, together with his natural Wind affinity, gave him the ability to experiment a bit and try to mix up the two elements.

While the others did their respective work, he was already finished with his and now did basic Wood Style training. His first task was to simply form and manipualte a single root.The Jinchuuriki remembered the first sentences of the scroll he red over and over again.

 _The five basic elemantal affinities all take their own place in nature, and have their own purposes. Therefore, wood is the most special. It isn't simply one element of nature, or even two mixed together. Wood is nature. It creates air and therefore wind, it feeds off water and earth, and is destroyed by fire and lightning. Wood combines each element, and gives it another purpose. In order to understand wood, you unite yourself with nature, you act as a part of it, and use it to your will. Feel the connection to everything, not just to one thing which works against something different. Wood is the ultimate force of nature, having the ability to even control and surpress demonic chakra. It is everything._

'Feel the connection to everything, not just one thing.', Naruto thought, over and over again.

He closed his eyes, and remembered how he concentrated in his Wind Style training. He focused simply on the feeling in the air, how it passed around him, through his hair. He tried to expand this feeling. The gusting of wind, the flowing of water, the crumbling of earth, the burning of fire and the roaring of lightning, while focusing on the wooden ground he stood on.

'Wood is everything.', he thought, and tried to form a root.

'Wood is everything.', he thought, while the ground in front of him stirred a bit.

'It is the ultimate force of nature, it gives everything a purpose.', he thought.

After a bit of stronger concentration, he managed to lift a wooden plank from the ground. Then the feeling hit him. It was like the wood was an extention of his body, like the plank was another arm. He tried to surpress and twist it to form a root. Slowly, after half a minute, he managed to actually form a half meter long root, which looked like a wooden snake. He carefully tried to move into all directions from all angles, but was only able to do it at a slow pace. Currently, it was definetely not helpful in combat.

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yeah, who is it?", the hunter told, while carefully dropping the wooden plank back into its actual place.

"It's me, Karin. Can I come in?", the clear and stern, yet soft voice of his cousin called out.

"Yes, of course.", he replied, turning to the opening door.

The familiar sight of his red-haired relative and teammate greeted him.

"What do you need, Karin-chan?", he asked.

"It's about your swords, may I look at them?", she asked with her typical analytical gaze.

He looked confused, but complied nevertheless, and unsheathed his four katanas, holding them out to her.

"Why, what's wrong with them?", the hunter asked, searhcing for an answer in her deep-in-thought face.

She watched the four weapons presented to her intently, and tried to search out for anything different or suspicious.

Then she felt it. It was similar when she saw the Kyuubi in Naruto, but so much stronger and darker. Violence, darkness, bloodlust. Every possible aggressive emotion was so deeply concentrated into this weapon that it made her shiver slightly.

"Naruto-kun, be careful when you handle these. I can sense a deep rooted bloodlust in them, and I'm afraid they can influence or pollute your mind as well.", she told, pushing up her glasses.

He nodded, looked at his weapon, but then grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, master already told me that. Don't worry about that, Karin-chan, no ancient weapon can change me, believe it!"

Though not fully convinced, she smiled slightly at his childish antics and nodded.

"Very well, I hope so."

"Oh, Karin-chan, I have a question."

She nodded. "Go ahead, what's your question?"

"You're an Uzumaki, right? So do you alse have our bloodline, and can you help me to train them?", he asked intrigued.

"Yes, I have the Chakra Chains and can fully control them. However, I can't help you if you haven't activated them yet. Our bloodline is activated in a strong moment of panic or despair, where we actually fear for our lives."

Naruto was disappointed, but nodded, knowing Karin couldn't help him with the ability.

"When did you activate them?"

Karin sighed and had a faraway look in her red eyes, replying:

"If you bite my arm you're fully healed, you already now that. Back in Kusagakure, I was abused for my ability. Once, I was chased and cornered by furious and desperate ninja and civilians, who yelled at me to use my power to heal someone. I was terrified, and closed my eyes. And then, they just shot out. The chains wrapped around them. I did not think and ran away again.", she finished, shuddering a bit from painful memory of her childhood.

"Don't worry, Karin-chan, I won't let anyone use you like that again, noone does that to my family, even though your ability is really cool."

She looked back at his childishly smiling yet sincere facey telling her that every word leaving this boys' mouth was the truth. He had what she craved for for ao long: The true love of family.

She smiled again, and bowed her head a bit.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun. Or, since you're my cousin, Naruto-nii-san?", she asked.

He smiled brightly, and replied: "Yes, that's fine, Karin-nee-chan."

Both smiled a bit silently, until Karin remembered: "Oh, by the way, Kankuro found a job for us, but he was in a really bad mood. We should look what it is.", she said, to which he nodded and left the training room.

They reached a former dining room in the second floor, which they quickly rearranged to an assembly room for their meetings. Already, the two of them heard the angry, no the furious and murderous voice of the puppet master.

"You should have seen his smug face! Oh, how much I would want to use my Iron Maiden against him, this stupid, narcissistic son of a bitch!" he roared for the entire floor to hear.

The cousins looked to each other and shrugged, opening the door to walk into an amusing sight. Kankuro, stepping around the assembly room with a face red from anger and throwing a tantrum, while Deidara sat on one of the chairs in the room with his feet on the table, ignoring the words of Kankuro and playing around with a handfull of clay.

"What's with him?", Naruto asked Deidara loud enough to hear him.

The clay user shrugged while still looking on the white mass in his hands.

"He was like that when he came in already, just shouting about someone. I started to ignore it after a while.", he answered nonchalantly.

Naruto nodded and walked over to the shouting Sand-nin. He simply slapped him, interrupting his tantrum and causing him to fall on the ground.

The puppet master looked even more furious than before and yelled: "Dude, what the hell is wrong with you!?"

Naruto, now equally pissed, yelled back: "With me? What the hell is wrong with YOU!?" I would be surprised if the whole shinobi world hasn't heard your shouting yet! The hell made you that pissed?"

Kankuro's anger then switched from his partner to his original target.

"Grrr, it's Akira and his group, the Abyss. They are an independent mercenary group but have an excellent reputation. In our world reputation is everything, and because of his flawless one, he tends to get nearly all the jobs. I was in one of the pubs, and he was there with his partners, getting contracts thrown at him as if he was a stripper and the contracts were money. And his face, oh his face, how I would love to reshape it!"

Deidara asked "So why don't we do it then?"

Kankuro gritted his teeth "He has so much influence, and has nearly one hundred men. We, unfortunately, are only four. To turn against him is to turn against all of his allies and the entire Abyss. They are good, and I doubt anything besides one of Deidara's ultimate bomb can kill them all just like that."

"But shouldn't our reputation already be awesome? You and me infiltrated the Otokage mansion and managed to escape, and Deidara alone wiped out the entire village.", Naruto asked confused.

"This proves that we can kill a few weak guards and cause destruction. But can we protect a client, can we secure an important payload, can we track and hunt down a target, all of us? I did a few of these things already, but did you? Noone knows that, and until we did all of those things and did them well, our reputation stays as it is. Promising, yet young.", he finished his explanation solemnly.

Everyone nodded and though about the new pieces of information. Besides a fortune which could be in sight, a reputation was the key to a successful new life.

"You did manage to get a job for us though, what is it?", Karin asked.

"Yeah, a contract by the Wave Daimyo. Apparently, a few missing-nins are terrorizing Nami no Kuni (Wave Country), so they sent out a courier to Suna."

'Nami no Kuni, huh. Great, I can see how that drunken old man, Tsunami and Inari are.', Naruto smiled, reminiscing about his first mission outside of Konoha.

He started to speak again: "Well then, guys, we can care about this Akira guy later, now pack your stuff and prepare, we'll go to Nami no Kuni. Deidara, have you prepared the kunai I asked for?"

"Yep, here they are.", the clay user exclaimed, throwing a pouch of kunai to his leader.

"Then let's go, guys.", Naruto yelled out to his partners, pumping his fist into the air.

The Desert Hunt prepared itself for its first job, collecting all tools necessary, and hopped onto Deidara's clay bird, flying to Wave Country.

After a while, they reached the border of Fire to Wave Country, and found themselves a fitting place to land soon afterwards, a nice clearing in a forest.

The group walked into the direction of the main village, until they closed in to a gigantic bridge. Directly in front of the bridge, there was a sign of stone with a few engravings.

 _We honour this bridge to our saviour from the opression of Gato and the hero of Nami no Kuni_

 _Welcome to the Great Naruto Bridge_

"I can't believe Tazuna named the bridge after me.", Naruto muttered in awe, reading the sign over again.

"You have an own bridge?", Kankuro asked curiously.

"Apparently. It was the first mission of my old team outside of Konoha. We fought against Zabuza and his friend Haku. Zabuza was a violent ninja, and Haku, he was just like me. Both died as good people and honourable shinobi, though."

"Wait, you were the ones who defeated the Demon of the Bloody Mist?", Deidara asked, genuinely surprised.

The Jinchuuriki nodded. "Yes, we did not kill him though, he died because of the wounds he received from Gato's thugs until he could reach and kill him. Come, we will go into town."

The group walked silently through the lively town in Wave Country, getting mostly confused looks. Probably because of the strange pairing of hitai-ates.

'Wow, this place is so much bigger than I remember. No wonder that's the capital of Nami no Kuni.', thought Naruto.

A few minutes of walking, the mercenaries reached a huge market place. Push carts blocked their view to the other side of the place, filled with different kinds of exotic food and ingredients, spices, clothes and weapons.

At the end of the market place, the Suna-nin could not miss the gigantic looking palace with samurai guards in front of it. The palace of the Wave Daimyo.

"Halt, Suna-nin. What are you doing here?", one of the guards spoke, hands on the hilt of their katanas.

"We are mercenaries from Suna, the ones your Daimyo hired for your Missing-nin problem.", Kankuro answered, showing the business contract from the Wave courier.

The guards briefly checked the contract, and talked again.

"Alright, we'll escort you to our Daiymo. Keep your hands where we can see them.", the samurai instructed, with two standing in front of the Suna group, and two standing behind them.

The group closed in towards a large iron gate on a red carpet. Clearly the way to the throne room of the Daimyo.

Entering the majestic throne room, the group was greeted by the sight of a whole dozen samurai guards, an even shinier and more golden room, and the strong smell of...sake?

Apparently, the Daimyo was enjoying his second bottle of the strong liquor, clearly making his guards uncomfortable.

Naruto furrowed his red eyebrows. He could swear he knew the old, bearded face of the man of royalty sitting in front of him.

"Whaddya wan' here?", began the slightly sluggish voice of the ruler.

The group leaders' eyes widened, he definetely knew this voice as well.

"Tazuna-jiji?", Naruto answered, to the surprise of his group and anger of the guards.

"Talk with more respect, stranger, you are here as our guest!", roared the samurai, unsheathing his sword, causing Kankuro and Deidara to reach for their respective weapons as well. Naruto held up his hand to signal his partners to calm down.

"Ye, who're you to call me by my name like that, boy?", spoke Tazuna.

"Hey, for saving your ass against Zabuza, you surely are very ungrateful, old man!", the Jinchuuriki spoke, pulling down his face mask to reveal his smiling, whiskered face.

The leaders' and samurais' eyes nearly popped out of their skulls in surprise. Tazuna stumbled on his feet, and walked to his former saviour.

"How's that possible? Naruto?",

"'Course, gramps!", he laughed, causing Tazuna to laugh heartily as well and envelop the young man in a tight hug.

"What the hell are you doing here? We were told you were dead, and the hell's wrong with your headband, kid?"

"Hehe, about that..."

 _A lot of storytelling later_

"What?!? Get me those punks, I'll kill them all!", the Wave Daimyo screamed, taking a sword from one of his samurai. He walked towards the giant entrance.

"Wait, Jiji, come back. You are a Daimyo, you can't just go and fight people."

"Ahh, you're right. Commander, mobilize all your forces. I want you to slaughter every single one of their brethren!"

"B-but my lord, Konoha is far too powerful for..."

"I DON'T CARE! How dare they spit on our hero like that, I want them to pay for that!"

"No, he is right, Tazuna-jiji. Konoha is far too powerful for Wave, and you don't have any ninja. Besides, I don't want you to kill them."

"Everyone in favour of slaughter, raise your hands!", called out Deidara while raising his right hand, causing Tazuna to immediately raise his hand as well.

Naruto looked at Deidara with a sarcastic "Thank you"-look, while Kankuro chuckled, Karin facepalmed and Deidara grinned cheekily. The leader started to talk again.

"Anyway, that isn't the reason we came here. Your courier told us you had problems with a bunch of Missing-nins here?"

Trying to calm himself down, Tazuna sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Yes, some punks are messing with us. They attack our trade ships and caravans, raid the smaller villages around here and disappear into their camps again. They are shinobi, and my samurai have a hard time to defend themselves against them."

"That's why we're here, Jiji. We'll take care of 'em, believe it!", Naruto said, getting nods from his group and a smile from Tazuna.

"I'm glad you're here, you can really help us, I know it."

The talk was interrupted by a samurai entering the hall through the door.

"My lord, your other guests are here."

Tazuna was briefly confused, though he was widening his eyes immediately. Naruto meanwhile pulled up his face mask.

Sighing, the Daimyo said: "Ok, bring them in."

He turned to Naruto and started to speak again.

"You see, those nins have two camps, so a bigger and a smaller one. You're four, so we hired you for the smaller camp. And, eheheh, we kinda hired another group. Normal shinobi though, not mercenaries."

"Oh ok, and who did you hire?", Naruto asked innocently.

Before the Daimyo could answer, the door opened again, causing everyone to turn towards the door. When the groups of people saw each other, they were immediately on edge.

Naruto examined the group closely. There were two figures in front of six younger figures. He figured they would be Jonin teams. One of the figures in front was a tall and brown skinned man, with black hair and a black beard. The other figure was a slender, white skinned woman with brown hair, crimson eyes and bandages all over her body.

Then he briefly scanned the younger persons behind them. They looked like they were his age. A boy with black pineapple-shaped hair, a chubby boy with brown hair and red marks on his cheeks, and a girl with a platinum blond ponytail. The other group consisted of a boy completely concealed by his jacket and sunglasses, a boy with an enormous dog besides him and a girl with lavender, pupilless eyes.

The worst thing, though, was a single detail.

Naruto tried to calm himself down seeing those headbands.

They were from Konoha, and Naruto knew every single person standing in front of him.

He tried to remember the words he told Tazuna, that he didn't want to kill anyone, but to see those people was a different story than talking about them.

The Konoha-nin were on edge as well. The mercenaries already looked threatening, and especially the masked one with his slashed Konoha headband and his venomous, red-eyed gaze.

Trying to kill the awkward silence, the bearded Konoha-nin coughed to get the Daimyo's attention, and started to talk.

"Team Asuma and Team Kurenai from Konoha. We are here to help you with the Missing-nins."

"Ah yes, Asuma-san. As I already instructed those mercenaries here, we need your help at the bigger camp of those delinquents. Here, those are papers with the instructions to find the camps. Come back here if you need any help, or are finished with your work. Good luck."

Tazuna gave Naruto and Asuma a scroll each, which then left the palace next to each other in awkward silence.

The next thing happening though surprised everyone. The dog walking with the feral looking boy from Kurenai's group walked over to Naruto, causing everyone to stand dead in their tracks. The white dog sniffed Naruto up and down, and started to wiggle his tail violently after some time while barking happily.

The feral boy was the most confused and asked: "Hey Akamaru, what are you doing with this...dude?"

Akamaru barked even more, while Naruto tried to not move at all.

"He looks very happy to see him Kiba, troublesome...", muttered the pineapple-haired boy.

"I can see that Shikamaru, I'm just wondering why. Hey, you there, redhead! Who the hell are you?"

The Jinchuuriki's red-slitted eyes found Kiba's black ones.

"I really don't think I want to talk with you, _Kiba."_ , answered Naruto with a dead voice, spitting out Kiba's name as if it was the vilest thing he could think of. Kiba was one of the worst people he had to handle in his age group. Of course he didn't have any ill feelings towards Akamaru for...obvious reasons, but he is still surprised to be greeted so warmly by him.

"What did you say? Big words for a traitor like you! How dare you even slash that headband, let alone wear it afterwards?"

"I'm not obligated to answer any questions from you, mutt.", countered the mercenary.

"Come here and call me that again!", said Kiba, who stepped towards Naruto.

"K-kiba-kun, w-we shouldn't s-start a fight h-here.", came the timid voice of the lavender-eyed girl.

"Hinata is right Kiba, knock it off!", Kurenai called out to her student, who gritted his teeth, but stopped his tantrum and called back Akamaru.

"Hey, you there! Kiba's right, though. Akamaru likes you, so we should know you. Who are you? And what is the brother or the Kazekage doing here? So troublesome..", asked Shikamaru.

"The brother of the Kazekage? Wait, you are those people, right?", Asuma said, immediately on edge.

"What do you mean 'those people', sensei?", asked the munching voice of the brown-haired boy.

"Well Chouji, I only mean the four people who fought Orochimaru, survived and then annihilated the entire village of his.", the smoker answered, stunning the group from Konoha.

"Ahhh yes, my finest piece of art yet, yeah!", yelled Deidara.

"If you excuse us, I'm here to earn my money, not to talk with the kinds of you.", said Naruto.

His group started to leave towards his destination, before Asuma's voice called out again.

"You're lucky that we met here, and that you seem to be an official Suna mercenary force. I can't ensure our next encounter will go out this peaceful."

The group stood still briefly, and without turning back, the addressed boy answered: "Good, then I'm happy to see you on the battlefield soon."

The groups left into their respective opposite directions, without a conflict. Though, in the far future, a conflict seems to be unavoidable, when the rain turns to blood, and the clouds turn red.

 _A/N: Sorry that there's only talking in this chapter guys, but I'm trying not to vary my chapters too much in length. Review please, and see you soon._


	11. The First Job (Part 2)

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the new chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt.' I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long, but I was too busy studying and learning for my first two test phases. I wasn't able to.find any time for writing at all. Now I'm back though, enjoy._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Nami no Kuni_

The Desert Hunt left the village into the South, as the insturctions from the Daimyo Tazuna told them to. Their surroundings were a really dense forest, which made it particularly easy to run over the branches from tree to tree.

Suddenly though, Deidara felt a brief impact on his shin, something like a very thin line.

"DUCK!!", he called out.

Without thinking, everyone quickly dropped themselves to hold the next branch instead of standing on it. A millisecond later, they heard the swooshing sound of possibly a thousand kunai flying through the space they just stood in.

After the wave of steel disappeared, everyone climbed back onto the branches.

"Huh, stepping into a exaggerated death trap instead of setting one up, what a refreshing experience.", the artist said, getting incredulous looks from everyone.

'Yep, definetely a basket case.', everyone thought and nodded to themselves.

"Guys, looks like there is a clearing. I suppose that's where the camp of those people are.", started the leader Naruto to the group.

"Ok, my turn. They'll make a lovely firework.", spoke Deidara to the group.

"No, you shouldn't forget that our objective is not only to kill those people, but also find out who they are, and why they attack Wave Country." Kankuro interjected.

"First we should see the camp, then we'll figure something out.", finalized Naruto, synching with his airborne partner again.

He flew an entire round over the camp, and immediately left the sight of his partner after he noticed a tiny detail.

Naruto's eyes opened, and he immediately drew two of his swords.

"Countless ninja closing in. Some went into the trees, some are still on the ground."

"They must've heard the traps.", Karin deduced, getting into a battle stance herself.

"Everyone ready?", Kankuro asked, summoning his three puppets and Kabuto.

"Born ready. Let's blow 'em up!", Deidada yelled, smiling like a maniac.

"Attack!", Naruto commanded.

The Desert Hunt split up into two groups, with Deidara and Naruto going up the trees, and Kankuro and Karin dropping to the ground.

They saw the enemy 100 metres away. Every single one of them was hiding underneath a black cloak, barely revealing their faces, hands and feet.

Deidara created an opening for himself and sent away 5 little masses of clay, which destroyed the trees into little pieces of wood, and threw around some of the hiding ninja like ragdolls.

"Trying to be sneaky, huh? Well, two can play that game. Here, a jutsu an old friend of mine gave me the idea for.", Naruto started, going through a few hand seals. His left hand went in front of his mouth, his index and middle finger spread to create a 'shush' position, and his right hand going up, fingers in the same formation.

 **"Sunagakure no jutsu (Hidden Sand Jutsu)"**

A sandstorm appeared right behind Naruto, spreading in a cloud like form and following him. The sand effectively shut off the sight for everyone, bathing the woods in a thick, brown-beige layer of the earthen material.

Unfortunately, Deidara wasn't able to see either. Quickly, he rose up the trees again and hopped onto his bird, looking down into the sandstorm.

"What the hell is that?", he asked himself.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Karin and Kankuro_

The two mercenaries kept the enemies at bay quite well. Karin threw the enemy nin into the trees with her chains, while Kankuro hold off most of the storm with his puppets. They too noticed the sandstorm approaching them.

"A sandstorm? In this area?", Karin wondered perplexed.

The duo, as well as the missing-nin, lost sight of what's ahead of them, and tried to attack blindly, none of them acutally succeeding. A few unlucky rogues even managed to hit each other.

"Karin, can you hear me?", Kankuro shouted out, climbing onto a tree. He futily tried to get an overview over the situation.

"Yes, I can. I would prefer to see you, though.", the redhead answered.

Both had to dodge incoming ninja which immediately dashed at them once they revealed their location by yelling.

"We'll have to work this out somehow. Come to me, we'll try standing back to back.", Kankuro shouted, feeling the contact of a smaller frame behind him.

"Ok, let's try it."

The ninja kept charging at them like beasts attacking their prey, but the only thing that was able to give them a direction was the previous sound. The fight mostly consisted of Kankuro and Karin blindly throwing out their puppets and chains.

Sometimes one of them had a lucky shot, with Kankuro slaying the nin with his Kabuto puppet or Karin hurling an enemy into the ground with a loud smashing sound.

The chain user then grasped a particularly resistent enemy with her chains. She wrapped a chain around each limb, and one around the neck. Karin then started to pull her chains back in hopes of ripping her enemy apart.

„Kankuro, try helping me. I don't know which jutsu this one's using, but he is really persistent."

„I can't, my Kabuto puppet seems to be under attack, and the other ones are busy, too!"

Karin stood with a solid stance, wrapping chains around her feet to stabilize herself, and pulled with all of her might. She heard a few nasty crack sounds, and finally managed to rip out every single limb of her enemy plus its head.

When they flew at them and she was hit by the force she pulled the body parts with, she noticed that there was a lot of flesh and blood missing. The pieces felt like...wood.

"Damn, my Kabuto puppet is broken!", Kankuro shouted, having trouble deflecting the incoming nin.

'Oh fuck, this was Kankuro's puppet.',Karin thought. Her thought ended with receiving a particularly nasty hit into her face, knocking her out cold. She landed on the earthen forest floor with a very clear 'thud'.

"Karin? Karin!", Kankuro shouted. When he didn't get an answer, he jumped a bit away and positioned his remaining three puppets in front of him. The user tried to prepare himself for the incoming rogues.

 _"Well, how do I do this now?"_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Naruto and Deidara_

Naruto wasn't having difficulties with the sand. It was something he was very capable of enduring, particularly the sight problem. He was advancing well, but the number of enemies was too much for him.

Deidara was up above the trees sitting on his bird. The Bokuton user too was unable to see anything inside the storm. Fortunately, he had a solution.

Well, at least a "Deidara-solution".

"Naruto, try to dodge, I will make it rain!", the flying ninja said, throwing the clay bombs he prepared.

Naruto deflected a few kunai blows with his two swords, until he briefly looked up. The jinchuuriki saw the rain of clay descending onto the ground, which made his eyes widen. Naruto quickly hopped from tree to tree, his breath quickening with every explosion he heard behind him.

Already running at max speed, Naruto heard the explosions coming closer to him, dangerously close. A few of his clothes already caught a bit fire.

'Wait, I forgot my seals!', Naruto thought, quickly searching his bags for one of his prepared kunai.

'Where are they, where are they, WHERE ARE THEY?', Naruto panicked.

Before he could search another bag, a clay bomb detonated right behind his lower back, sending him flying with an increased pace. Naruto shortened a few trees he flew through, until he slammed face first into the ground, not moving a muscle anymore.

Slowly, the sandstorm started to vanish, leaving the battlefield open to everyones eyes again. Naruto and Karin laid on the ground, unconscious and bruised. Around Karin and Kankuro, there were a few corspes, some in the ground, some hanging in the trees. The most brutal scene was the field hit by Deidara's bombs. The nature which was once there was entirely obliterated, with a gigantic fire spreading through the trees. The people unlucky enough to be in the explosion radius were torn apart by the sheer force of the bombs. Limbs laid around, and blood was splattered everywhere, painting the ashes red.

Then a voice rang out. It came from one of the rogues. A slim figure, with a hood covering basically his whole body, only leaving his pale feet visible for the outside.

"YoU tHeRe!", the figure shouted in a strange voice, pointing to a group of his men "QuiCk, exTinGuiSh thE FirE. ThE reSt takE ThIs giRl anD lEaVe. MayBe she'S woRtH sOmeThinG."

"No, Karin!", Kankuro shouted, charging towards Karin to save her. A few of the rogues intercepted him and attacked his three original puppets.

„You GenTlEmeN wiLl regrEt attaCkiNG uS. GroUP B, staY hEre anD takE carE of The reSt. EvEryonE eLse, Come wIth mE, we wIlL reTurN tO thE mAiN cAmP.", the figure shouted, and jumped into the trees with the other rogues.

By the time he was finished talking, Deidara already landed on the ground, and quickly followed the group of ninja.

"No Deidara, come back!", Kankuro shouted, but to no avail. The blonde and the group of rogues were already gone.

Kankuro was now alone, surrounded by six rogues.

He was able to throw the three in front of him away with his puppets, hurling them into the trees. Kankuro quickly turned around to deflect the imcoming attacks with the wooden arms of the puppets.

One of his puppets flew from side to side, landing powerful strikes into his enemies torsos. The other puppet extended its arms and scooped all three of them into what looked like a hug. The puppet flew through the air, spinning and descending towards the mouth of the last puppet.

In the last moment, the scorpion puppet opened its arms. The momentum of the rogues threw them towards the open mouth, which spit out a torrent of fire.

 **"Kurohigi: Sandai Higeki! (Black Art: The Three Great Tragedies)"**

The three missing-nin were engulfed in the destructive heat, not making a sound anymore.

Kankuro breathed heavily. His previous fight and now this attack had drained him of most of his energy.

"Naruto?"

He turned around to look for his remaining partner. The last thing he saw was an incoming fist. Then the puppet masters world went black.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Naruto_

The jinchuuriki groaned and slowly pushed his body off the ground. With his arms, which felt three times heavier than before, he slowly heaved himself off the ground and onto his knees. Every muscle and every bone in his body felt as if it was on fire. A cough released a bit of blood from his mouth.

Once he was standing on a bit shaky feet, he turned around and took a look on the battlefield in front of him. Corpses, burned ground and trees, but no one there he knew.

"Guys? Guys, where are you?", he asked. No answer.

Naruto decided to slowly stumble towards the abandoned camp, figuring his team already fought its way through.

The camp was really simple, but practical. It reminded of a Roman camp. Numerous tents built up for the rogued, and at the end of a little path, there was the leaders tent.

Naruto walked to the leaders tent. It was furnintured rather simple as well. A desk with a wooden chair, a little bed and a table with two chairs and not fully eaten meals.

Quickly, Naruto walked to the desk and looked through it. He mostly found contracts which were already fulfilled, nothing interesting at all.

One letter raised his attention, but he couldn't define what it meant:

 _By whatever name you go by,_

 _this is unacceptable. We do accept most of the conditions of our task, even you taking such a large amount of my men, but the money you want to pay us for this job is far too little. If we can't make a good deal on the payment, then this contract is over._

 _A_

Naruto dropped the letter, and walked out of the tent. He still didn't see any of his teammates, and wondered where they went.

"Oh wait, the communication seal!", Naruto remembered, activating it with a bit of chakra.

"Guys? Is there anyone? Can you hear me?", Naruto asked, but there was no answer.

"What happened to them? They are nowhere near, so they must be outside the radius of the seal. Ugh, maybe there's a clue on the battlefield."

Naruto walked to the battlefield, his body starting to heal due to his natural jinchuuriki healing.

The young fighter mostly found corpses splattered all over the place, many of them burned.

What he found next was a bit unnerving. It was Kankuro's Kabuto puppet, or what was left of it.

'Oh oh, that's not good.', Naruto thought. He scooped up the remaints of the pupped and put them into a storage scroll.

The jinchuuriki felt a light pull on his battle pants. He looked down and saw a little bird. The bird though was completely white.

"One of Deidara's clay birds?", Naruto wondered. The little bird seemed to nod, and flew off.

"Hey wait!", Naruto shouted.

The bird stopped and landed on a tree branch. It chirped a few times, and proceeded to fly into the same direction.

 _ **"It wants you to follow, kit.** "_, the Kyuubi growled.

"Kyuubi! Are you alright?", Naruto asked.

 ** _"Yes, the blow was a bit tough though. Tell your blonde partner to not throw exploding birds on you, that would be very nice."_ , **the demon sneered sarcastically.

"I'll have to find him first. I guess this bird will lead me to them."

Naruto took off, and followed the clay bird deeper into the forest.

 _A/N: Hey guys, hope you liked the chapter. Sorry that it's pretty short, but I try to make logical cuts in between the chapters. Drop a few comments. See ya!_


	12. The First Job (Part 3)

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the newest chapter of "Kid of the Hunt"_.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Karin groaned, her head feeling like it has been used as a drum set. She sat up, rubbed her temples and opened her eyes.

She sat in a dark room, the thing she saw most were iron bars. This was a prison cell.

The medic tried to walk, and heard the noise of metal. Her foot was contained by a metal chain connected to the wall.

"Don't try anything funny with your chains, your chakra is sealed. Believe me, I tried it enough.", told a familiar voice behind her.

Karin turned right to see the annoyed face of the puppet user which was her partner, sitting against the wall.

"Do you know where we are?"

"Not really, probably this bigger camp we heard about from the Daimyo. I only know we're not alone.", Kankuro answered, pointing behind her.

Karin turned around to see the team of the bearded man they saw at the palace, sitting solemnly on the floor. She frowned at them briefly, but started looking for an escape.

"We have to hope Team Kurenai somehow managed to escape. With reinforcements we'll get out of here.", started Asuma quietly.

"What's with those?", Ino inquired in the same tone, nodding her head to the other end of the cell.

""Those" can here you, but keep talking, we aren't even there.", Kankuro said sarcastically, without any reactions other than a little chuckle from Karin.

"We can't just leave the brother of the Kazekage here with some bandits, how do you think Suna will react?", answered Shikamaru.

Their talk was interrupted by a brief flash of sunlight. The tent they were in was briefly opened, revealing the hooded pale figure from before.

"So, mY dEaR frIendS, we WiLl leAve tHis plaCe tOmoRroW in thE morNinG. PlEAse, enJoy tHe reSt oF youR stAy. HaVe a TastE oF oUr fiNe cUisIne anD a LoOk aT bEautifUl vIeW."

And then the figure left again after enjoying the murderous looks from the group.

"Whatever we do, we will have to do it quickly.", Karin told Kankuro, who nodded.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto followed his partner to the distinct location they reached after a few minutes. It was a clearing covered in green tents, but much larger than the last one he saw. Fortunately, the thugs set up the exact same traps as before, so Naruto was able to evade them easily and get close enough to overview the situation.

'A dozen of them on each entrance. A dozen around the tent in the middle. I guess I'll have to try it.'

 **"Thrill of the Hunt. Tools of the Hunt: Cat's Focus."**

Naruto hopped down from the branch into the camp, his Cat's Focus helping him not making a sound during his landing.

The jinchuuriki quickly ran behind tent, so that he could further conceal himself from the enemy.

He glimpsed a moment onto his target tent, but was surprised to see the bandits running away to one of the entrances.

 ** _"BOOOOOOOM!!"_**

In a gigantic bowl of fire, much of the Eastern entrance of the camp was annihilated.

Naruto almost wasn't surprised to see a blonde man sitting on a big white bird. Strangely, Deidara seemed to nod to him, as if he knew where he was, and immediately began to throw clay bombs into the ascending crowd on the trees.

'I guess that's my cue.', Naruto thought and ran into the big tent in the middle of the camp.

He quickly scanned the tent and saw Karin and Kankuro on one side, and Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino and Asuma on the other side, all of then looking at the moving curtains expectantly.

"Guys, you're here! I'm sorry for the fight back then, I...", Naruto yelled/whispered.

"We'll talk about it later, the important thing is that you found us!", Karin shouted/whispered as well

Naruto quickly went to open the door of his companions, until he felt his leg was grabbed.

Naruto was pulled down and the hands tried to strangle him. Strange enough, the hand seemed to come out of the ground.

Chusei flew through the curtains and pulled on one hand while picking on the other hand. They then disappeared back into the ground.

Naruto rolled backwards and picked up two swords, while his eagle landed on his shoulder.

Then, the whole figure instead of the hands rose from the ground. It was the hooded pale figure, which now stood in between Naruto and the cage.

"The hell are you?", Naruto asked.

"YoU'Ll kNow sOon eNouGh, YokO.", the figure said, charging at Naruto.

Naruto clashed swords with the figures' arms. It was a strange fight for the hunter. This persons' moves were really...unorthodox, nothing like any known fighting style. Naruto quickly adapted to his opponent and started to almost land swift, close strikes.

The figure jumped back and sunk into the ground.

"We'll see about that. **Tools of the Hunt** **: Mole's Breakthrough**."

Naruto dived hands first into the ground and quickly travelled through the earth, colliding with the figure and shattering the earth.

When both figures noticed they couldn't really harm each other in the earth, they both jumped out of the ground simultaneously. Both figures breathed heavily, and Naruto clutched his hurting wrists.

The sunlight briefly came up, revealing another Konoha team. It was Team Kurenai, looking very out of breath. Probably from running away from Deidara's bombs.

"OuR tiMe neEds Yet tO cOme, yoKo.", the figure said, disappearing into the ground.

Naruto eyed the free Konoha team suspiciously and vice versa, daring the other side to make a move.

The jinchuuriki started to talk: "I take my people and you take yours. For all I care, we never saw each other."

Kurenai nodded once, and Naruto cut open the cage with a clean sword strike, while his sword shimmered a bright red.

Deidara came through the curtains as well, looking exhilarated.

"Your carriage has arrived, mésdames et mésieurs.", the Bokuton user said, holding open the curtains for his team.

"Merci beaucoup.", Karin replied sarcastically, but with a genuine smile. Kankuro and Naruto followed behind them, leaving the reuniting Konoha squad behind.

The Desert Hunt hopped onto the bird and ascended into the air, escaping from the burning camp.

"Wait, we forgot to look through their camp. Maybe there was something of value there!", Naruto shouted.

"Already one step ahead of you.", Deidara said, giving Naruto a collection of papers.

"Nothing of direct value, but a bounty contract, and we're lucky. Whoever those guys were, they probably have no rights among the mercenaries of Suna. So now, rightfully, this contract is ours.", Deidara explained

"Sweet.", Kankuro yelled.

"Ok, let's see through this.", Naruto mumbled.

 **W A N T E D A L I V E**

 _Target name: Utakata_

 _Target status: Missing-nin_

 _Former village: Kirigakure no sato_

 _Rank: S_

 _Bounty: 1.000.000_

 ** _WARNING: IN POSSESSION OF UNKNOWN DEMONIC POWERS. ENGAGE WITH UTMOST CAUTION_**

"Someone with demonic powers, we have a big one. Dangerous, but there is 1 fucking million waiting on the other side.", Naruto told.

"Woah, getting the chills already", Kankuro said, "Let's return to Tazuna first, then we'll return home and talk about this."

"Guys, that was our first successful mission as a team.", Naruto said matter-of-factly.

Everyone looked at each other and smiled. It was true. Now, the Desert Hunt was officially born.

 _A/N: Hey guys, hope you liked the chapter. Stay tuned for the next one!_


	13. Our demons

_A/N: Hey guys, welcome to the new chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Feel free to leave comments!_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Land of Waves_

"So, those people thought this Utakata was hiding somewhere in the Land of Waves, and that's why they set up their camps and terrorized our population.", Tazuna summarized, and Karin nodded.

"Exactly. This contract says that every step necessary has to be taken. It's a contract from The Six.", Kankuro told.

"The Six?", Naruto asked confused.

"The Six are probably the biggest client for bounty hounters. They offer the most high-risk, high-reward missions of all the clients out there, mostly for people with special powers. No one ever saw them in person, they only ever send around their servants to discuss the details of the contract.", Kankuro explained.

"So the guy I fought against was hired by those 'Six'?", Naruto asked.

"No, I have reason to believe he actually is one of the servants. The way he talked, how he was able to go into the ground and how he called you 'Yoko' as if he knew of your powers. I don't believe this guy was a regular mercenary.", Karin answered.

"We can discuss the details later", Deidara finished, "I guess it's time for our payment first."

"You're right.", Tazuna said, grabbing a suitcase from one of his servants.

"For destroying not only one, but both of the enemy camps, you have your reward of 10.000 Ryo. Thank you for your service, the Land of Waves and me personally are very grateful. Enjoy your stay, and please come to visit us soon."

"Thank you jiji, I will remember it.", Naruto nodded, and left the palace with his team.

 _Back in the Namikaze mansion_

"So guys, I think we have to address the obvious.", Naruto started after a bit of awkward silence.

"We weren't really acting like a team. I guess I have to take the responsibility for that, to just start a sandstorm without giving you a heads-up or some possibility to actually do something in it is entirely my fault.", Naruto finished sadly.

"Well..", Deidara started, "maybe I shouldn't have just started to throw bombs onto everything that moved, yeah."

"We could've communicated better.", Kankuro told the group while repairing his Kabuto puppet.

"Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have ripped apart your puppet then.", Karin said, rubbing her temples.

"So, we need to do something about it. I can start to work on a seal that gives you vision in a sandstorm ", Naruto declared.

"I can set up a team training for us against clones, and it will teach you dodge the explosions of my art as well.", Deidara told.

"A running track would be nice, we all need some more condition.", Karin added.

"I can help with that, I know a few places that let your hearts beat faster, if you ever reach them.", Kankuro finished.

"Then we know what we will do whenever we have time. What about him?", Naruto asked, waving around the bounty contract for Utakata.

"What's his last known location?", Karin started.

"Apparently, he was seen close to Suna.", Kankuro said, looking through the information he ordered from the Suna police, "Yeah, a little village just around the corner."

"But wait, if this dude is here, then why were those thugs from before in Nami no Kuni?", Deidara asked.

"Wait, Naruto you had this letter from someone named 'A', right? About how he won't do a job until the price is appropriate?", Kankuro asked.

"Yeah, what about it?", Naruto asked.

"Everyone has access to this information. Those thugs could've easily find out where Utakata actually was."

"You mean that they weren't there to catch Utakata?", Naruto asked.

"No, I don't think so. They probably found a price. This contract is just a copy. The camps from before were a trap.", Kankuro deduced, looking unnerved.

"A trap for who?", Naruto asked.

"I think for you.", Karin answered.

"Who would set up a trap for me? Who was the one who offered you this contract Kankuro?", Naruto asked.

"We'll go to Utakata. Whoever we'll find there as well has the answers for us.", Kankuro finished, already packing up his equipment.

"I guess you're right. Let's go.", Naruto added, while everyone took their weapons and equipment and Deidara prepared his bird.

"Everyone, hop on.", Deidara instructed.

The bird took of into the distance. It took them only a minute to reach a small village, which already burned. They saw a gigantic fissure in the ground, fire spreading over the houses and...bubbles?

"Let's jump off and see what's going on there.", Naruto said, dropping himself off the bird with his team after it sank low enough.

They saw three figures in the distance. One of them, apparently the one creating the fissures, escaped into it and disappeared. The other two figures didn't seem to mind and proceeded to fight.

When they were 10 metres away, they saw the two figures.

One had middle-long brown hair that covered one, yellow-orange, tired looking eye. He wore a blue robe and had a yellow-orange flute. He was surrounded by bubbles, which seemed to come out of his flute.

The other one had red hair similar to Naruto's. His emerald-green eyes looked just as lazy as the ones of the other man, and his skin was just as pale. He wore a black robe, with red clouds on it. Strings came out of his hands, that were connected to puppets exactly like Kankuro.

The two men stopped fighting and looked at the group.

"SASORI?", Kankuro shouted enraged, already equipping his puppets.

"Kankuro.", the red-haired man, apparently named Sasori, said in a calm voice. He met eyes with everyone, and stopped when he saw Deidara.

"Deidara.", he said, in the same monotone voice.

"Sasori. What are you doing here?", Deidara said, readying his bombs.

"You should know that very well, traitor. You do still remember what this robe means, what it once meant to you?", Sasori asked.

"I prefer not to. Guys, you have to watch out for him, he is a very dangerous fighter."

"I know that.", Kankuro said, his puppets already out.

"Are you Utakata?", Naruto asked the other fighter.

"Yes.", he answered in a calm, but slightly tired voice.

"Then I know exactly what we'll do to him.", Naruto said, pointing at Sasori. He drew his swords and let them shine red.

"The Kyuubi, hello. It's an honour to meet you. I'm sorry, but you'll have to follow me."

"I don't know who you are, and how you know who I contain, but believe me, we won't have to worry about that for too long. Desert Hunt, attack!"

The four of them attacked. Naruto directly dove into close combat, Karin and Kankuro attacked from the distance with their chains and puppets and Deidara hopped back onto his bird.

Sasori jumped back and unleashed one of his puppets.

 **"Satetsu Kaihō! (Iron Sand: Unleash**!)"

"Watch out, they will come from everywhere!", Deidara yelled and ascended further into the air.

"Kankuro, Karin, stay behind me. **Fuuton: Kaze no Kabe! (Wind Style: Wind Wall!)"**

The spikes of iron colluded with the wall of wind torrents. Naruto noticed that the strength of the iron will probably overpower his wall soon.

"How dare you to use a Kazekage as one of your puppets, traitor!", Kankuro yelled enraged.

The jinchuuriki grabbed a kunai from his purse and threw it up to his partner Deidara, who attempted to bomb through Sasori's puppets.

"Deidara", Naruto whispered through his communication seal, "throw it behind him."

His airborne partner obliged and threw the kunai to miss Sasori by a few inches, therefore embedding itself in the sand.

Suddenly, Naruto disappeared in a flash of yellow light and instantly reappeared behind Sasori, meanwhile performing an X-scissor motion to decaptiate Sasori.

Sasori was barely able to dodge sideways and roll himself away, but therefore his iron spikes disappeared.

"You'll go nowhere. **Yontoryu: Bangādoejji! (Four Sword Style: Vanguard's Edge!)"**

The jinchuuriki threw out all of his four swords at extreme speed against Sasori. The original swords bounced back into his hands and holsters. Behind Sasori's back was a brief explosion of light. From the explosion, duplicates of his sword left and embedded themselves blade up into the sand around Sasori, creating an arena which only had one open point: Directly behind Naruto.

"Karin and Kankuro, hold him. Deidara, throw everything you've got. Come on puppetmaster, it's just you and us."

"You don't even know who you're having with you, do you? Deidara was a part of the organization I was with. We hunt people like you and Utakata, and you talk to him like he is your ally.", Sasori laughed, deflecting the blows of the enemies with his puppets.

"Karin, Kankuro, now!", Naruto shouted, dropping a few of his fire seal papers onto the ground in front of him.

"Chusei, your turn. **Tools of the Hunt: Eagle Claws."**

His partner descended from the air and struck the puppets restrained by Karin and Kankuro with his extended claw

Naruto blew a little wind onto the ground in front of him to blow the sand into Sasori's face and blind him briefly.

"Karin, Kankuro, pull the puppets down! Deidara, throw everything there's left!"

Sasori's Kazekage puppet shot out its spikes again, hitting everyone besides Deidara multiple times.

"Come on, Deidara!", Naruto coughed.

The Bokuton user threw a rain of clay bombs onto Sasori, who was still partially blinded by the sand.

He tried rubbing off the sand with his hand, until he noticed he also had paper in his face.

Then, both Deidara and Naruto yelled in unison:

 **"HA!"**

 **"MOETSUKIRU!"**

The clay and Kyuubi Fire Seals exploded directly in front of Sasori's face, clay explosions mixing with the crimson fire of the Nine Tails.

Meanwhile, the sword arena as well as the iron spikes disappeared again, leaving the wounded bodies of Karin, Kankuro and Naruto.

Deidara landed and quickly scooped up Naruto, Karin and Kankuro, getting them out of the smoke.

Everyone was hurt, but Naruto already started to heal from the Kyuubi. Karin was able to partially save herself from the spikes with her chains, but Kankuro was still hurt pretty badly.

"We have to get him help, quickly.", said Naruto, who already stood up again, but still on wobbly feet.

"I can help him.", said Karin, "Kankuro, bite my wrist."

"Karin...you don't have to...do this.", Kankuro coughed, with blood leaving his mouth.

"No, do it. We're a team, I want to help you.", Karin said sternly.

Kankuro sighed and bit Karins wrist. His wounds started to close. With new power, Kankuro jumped up and hugged Karin.

"Thank you Karin, I feel awesome!"

Karin smiled and hugged him back, saying "You're welcome."

"Well, isn't that sweet?", asked a voice from the smoke which started.

"You're shitting me, right?", Naruto asked, drawing his two swords again. His team got back into their stances, and Deidara jumped back onto his bird.

When the smoke cleared, the Desert Hunt saw Sasori again, but he didn't look human anymore. He looked like a puppet.

"Sasori, what the hell did you do?", Kankuro asked incredously.

"What does it look like, little one? I welcome you all to my ultimate puppet show.", Sasori announced, releasing 100 puppets.

"I don't think we can handle this, guys. It is said he single-handedly invaded a country like that. We need help.", Deidara started.

"Wait, what's with Utakata?", Karin asked.

Everyone looked around, and spotted him already in the distance, running away.

"Quick, on the bird! We have to get to him!", Naruto yelled. The team jumped on the bird, with Sasori quickly following.

"There is no escape!", he yelled, laughing like a maniac.

They took of at extreme speed, quickly catching up to Utakata and landing in front of him. The former Kiri-nin, immediately got into a defensive stance.

"Utakata, calm down, we're not here as enemies!", Naruto started.

"I think that bounty contract in yout pocket won't agree with you.", Utakata countered.

 ** _"I would calm down, little slug. This kid contains the Nine Tails, Kyuubi. I think whatever he offers, it is genuine.",_** the Six Tails said in Utakata's mindscape.

"You're a jinchuuriki?", Utakata asked.

Naruto briefly closed his eyes, and responded in Kyuubi's voice: **"Well, well, the Six Tails. Perceptive as ever."**

Deidara chimed in as well: "Sasori is part of the Akatsuki, an organisation that hunts jinchuuriki like you to extract the Tailed Beasts and use their power. We should work together, it's our only possible chance of survival."

"Even though you will have to explain a lot when we are finished here.", Naruto started, eyeing Deidara intensely, "he's right. Please, Utakata. We will do everything to protect you, if you are willing to do as well. I will never let someone be hurt who has a Bijuu.", he finished, extending his hand.

Utakata thought very hard for a few moments, but extended his hand as well and shook Naruto's.

"Ok, what is our plan?"

"Sasori wants the Bijuu, I think we should give him the Bijuu.", Naruto said, releasing one tail. The edges of his eyes grew more black, his fangs, even though invisible, grew longer and sharper, and his nails got longer and sharper.

Utakata nodded and released one tail as well.

"We'll show him what we can do. **Sunagakure no jutsu!** **(Hidden Sand Jutsu!)"**

"Naruto, we still can't see through your sand.", Kankuro reminded.

"Just trust me. Hide in the sandstorm, I will distract him. When you think the time is right, engage.", the Kyuubi jinchuuriki answered, getting down in a meditating position while his first chakra tail flared with energy.

Everyone nodded and hid in the sandstorm circling around Naruto, only leaving a tiny bit open so that Sasori could enter the circle.

After a minute, Sasori already caught up, bringing his army of puppets with him.

"I'm intrigued. Tell me, how did you know it was me?", Naruto asked Sasori, still sitting there with closed eyes and flaring chakra.

"A spy in Otogakure. You used your Bijuu chakra there already. You did really well at hiding, but now, we know you are alive, and we know exactly where you are hiding. There is no escape from us."

Naruto opened his eyes, and stood up. Calmly, he let the Kyuubi's chakra flow into his shoulderblades, growing out two more arms.

Sasori watched with fascination as Naruto drew out all four of his swords and went into his battle stance, while saying:

"You will find our will equal to yours."

"Our?"

( _A/N: Does someone know the scene? Absolutely loved it!)_

Sasori looked up, because suddenly, in the middle of the desert, he stood in the shadow. It was Deidara's bird flying, while Deidara poured down a load of clay bombs.

Protectively, Sasori unleashed his Iron Sand to shield himself from the rain of bombs.

"Quick, don't let him use his hands anymore!", a charging Naruto shouted.

A hand formed of Bijuu chakra emerged from one side of the sandstorm, where Utakata already stood outside, while chakra chains shot out from the other side where Karin stood, and wrapped themselves around Sasori's hands, holding them open forcefully. Naruto slided on his right side, right besides Sasori, and hit an empowered slash with his red shining sword on Sasori's right leg, while Kankuro's Sanshōuo landed a hit onto his left leg.

From the force of the hits, Sasori dropped onto his knees, still pulling so he could get his hands free, and focusing on not releasing his iron sand to stay protected from Deidara's bombs.

Naruto struck with all of his four swords multiple times, but noticed that striking through Sasori's chest did not have an effect.

"What's going on? Stabbing him doesn't do anything!", Kankuro yelled, still attacking his opponent with all of his puppets at once.

"His heart is in a container, he hid it somewhere in his puppets. You have to find out in which!", Deidara yelled.

"Kankuro, hold the hand which Utakata holds now! Utakata, come with me!", Naruto shouted, jumping back to his original spot, Utakata following him.

"I guess the Bijuu will have to help us here.", Naruto started, to which Utakata nodded. Both got into their positions.

"Kurama, I will give you control for a bit. I trust you.", Naruto said a bit nervously.

 ** _"Hehehe, no reason to be afraid, kit.",_** the Kyuubi said with a malicious grin.

Naruto felt Kyuubi pushing outside, releasing more and more tails. Naruto started to crouch on his hands and feet. His skin disappeared, which was now a red-black shade of chakra. He grew fox-like ears, and instead of his regular face, his face now was pitch black, with a white mouth and white eyes.

The now four-tailed Naruto roared in a deep but sometimes painfully screeching demonic voice, making the earth shake.

Utakata meanwhile was more and more surrounded by bubbles, which grew larger constantly. When the bubbles reached about 20 metres height, they started to get a white colour and fill out.

In the end, the complete form of the Six Tails stood in the desert.

"Quick we can't hold him off much longer!", Kankuro panted, while Deidara still tried to bomb through the iron sand.

In front of Naruto's mouth, blue and red particles, seemingly coming out of thin air, collected to a purple bubble. It was compromised to a little bubble, maybe about the size of a tooth. Opening his mouth unnaturally wide, the four-tailed Naruto swallowed the orb of energy, and his belly instantly expanded. This rendered him completely unable to move.

Utakata too created a purple bubble in front of him, which looked much less solid. It looked more like a fluid.

"If you want me to die here", Sasori started, "I will take them with me."

In a sudden movement, Sasori broke free of his confinements and instead grabbed the puppet of Kankuro and the chains of Karin, pulling them to him.

Karin was able to crush Sasori's hand with her chains, and immediately jumped behind Kankuro to help him. She wrapped her chains around Kankuro's puppets and pulled with all her might.

Sasori stopped pulling on purpose, and let himself fall into Kankuro with his feet forward, kicking him in the ribs. The Sand puppet user had to cough up some blood from the sudden and hard impact.

"Ugh, now, Karin!"

Karin let go of Kankuro's puppets, and instead pulled Kankuro out of Sasori's kick. She was able to pull him put, but not before Sasori was able to shoot an arrow from his destroyed arm into her arm.

Sasori fell face first into an open puppet, which closed behind him. All of Sasoris puppets now landed onto the puppet of Kankuro around it.

"Guys, do it already!", Karin panted, while pulling the arrow out of her arm. Kankuro helped her jump on Deidara's bird, while finishing his move.

 **"Kurohigi: Kiki Ippatsu! (Secret Black Move: Iron Maiden!)"** Iron spikes pierced through the puppet, fixating Sasori in his spot.

Naruto, still with a gigantic mid-section, now spat out an orange ball of chakra onto the puppet of Kankuro, while Utakata/the Six Tails spat out a purple bubble the size of its head.

 **"Kasoku Hōmatsu! (Freight Bubbles!)"** The two blasts exploded upon impact with the puppet. A huge gust of wind spread everywhere and almost threw Naruto and Utakata back.

The explosion kept on and on, and everything caught in the explosion visibly disintegrated.

Naruto and Utakata went back into their normal states, and fell onto their knees from exhaustion. Their breaths were heavy, their chest rising up and down rapidly.

The destruction died down, and the smoke cleared. The only thing left was a gigantic crater, and Sasori's motionless body.

Deidara's bird landed next to them. Kankuro dropped off Karin to lay down on the sand, everyone surround her.

"What's wrong with her?", Naruto asked concerned.

"The arrow Sasori shot at her was poisoned. I never saw a poison work that fast before. We will need some help, very, very quickly.", Kankuro answered.

"Maybe we can help you."

 _A/N: Hey guys, did you like the new chapter? I'm starting the action now more and more, hope you like the direction the story is going to. Leave your comments please!_


	14. Rebirth

_A/N: Hello guys, a new chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'._

 **NyaNyaKittyFace:** The reason why they got in each others way is because I wanted to introduce them not as a super team which already works perfectly like a team that actually trained together. Naruto not finding a help for the sandstorm, the extreme destructive moves of Deidara and the overall lack of communication. Something I suppose are the typical problems of a bunch of ninjas with entirely different abilities that never fought with each other. Maybe it wasn't perfectly thought through in each moment, but I think I did it pretty well.

 **ShadowDeathSkull:** Yeah, the romance will come eventually. For now, Naruto and Tsunade are in literally so different places in their life and the world, partially because Tsunade thinks Naruto is dead and Naruto is very busy with other things, that there is no place for romance yet. Don't worry, it'll come.

 _Overall, I want to thank you for all the nice and positive reviews you left me. Feel free to leave more, and I hope you enjoy the story further on._

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"Maybe we can help you."

The group turned around to see a group of four people standing there.

One of them had a Jonin vest, while the other three wore different kinds of clothing.

One boy with unnaturally pale skin, pitch black hair and eyes, wore a black sleeveless battle shirt and pants. He carried scrolls in his hands, which seemed to be his weapon.

The other boy had also pale, but a bit more healthy looking skin. His hair and eyes were just as black as the other ones'. He wore a white button up shirt, the top three buttons opened. He wore black pants, and had a purple piece of clothing wrapped around his torso. On his weapon belt, there was a thin sword.

The only girl in the group had creamy white skin, wore a red sleeveless shirt and a white skirt. Her most noticable feature was her pink hair. Her eyes were a pair of emerald green orbs.

The Jonin wore a green Jonin vest, with dark blue battle plants. His lower face was, similar to Naruto, concealed by a mask, and his hitai-ate covered his left eye.

The whole team wore Konoha headbands. This was Naruto's former team.

"You think you can help her?", Kankuro asked concerned. His voice would've dripped with venom, but Karin's state was more important to him now.

"I can try, yes. I learned a lot about toxicology from Tsunade of the Sannin. I'll need a medical emergency room."

"Come, we'll go. Leader-sama, you will have to wait with Utakata and these guys here, I'll come for you when I brought them to the hospital. It won't take long.", said Deidara.

"No, they can wait here. We have our own personal way of finding home.", Naruto countered rather rudely, while the ninja on the bird already took off.

"We do?", Utakata asked, and Naruto nodded.

"And what is that personal way?", someone asked just as rudely.

Naruto turned himself around to look into the eyes of the last person he saw before he 'died'. His former teammate, his former brother, his counterpart. Slitted, feral eyes burned themselves into a blazing Mangekyou Sharingan and vice versa.

"The Mangekyou Sharingan. Tell me, Uchiha-san, what did you need to sacrifice to get this pair?", the jinchuuriki asked.

Immediately, the former Konoha-nin spun around 180 degress to clash swords with the Sharingan user.

"Do you want to know what these eyes can do?"

"I would love to find out, show me."

"Alright Sasuke, that's enough!", the Jonin yelled at his student. Sasuke and Naruto stayed in their pose a few more seconds, their pained eyes burning into each other a bit more, but then the Uchiha reluctantly sheathed his sword back and walked to his team. In the middle of the way, he stopped and stood there, his back facing Naruto's back.

"Your hitai-ate is cut through. Tell me, what was the sacrifice for that?", Sasuke asked, just facing forward, his voice venomous.

"I only lost things while I wore this thing. Right before I made that cut I lost the last thing.", Naruto answered, not turning around as well.

"And what is that?", Sasuke pressed, now turning his head to see

"...I lost my brother.", the jinchuuriki answered, turning his head as well.

The Sharingan user squinted his eyes suspiciously, but before he could ask another question, the former Konoha-nin threw a smoke bomb and escaped behind one of the burned-down ruins.

Sasuke stood there silently, his mind gears working madly. He looked at the crater in the sand, and noticed that it was empty.

"Wait, wasn't there a corpse?", he asked his team which looked just as perplexed.

Behind one of the ruins, Naruto kneeled with the unmoving body of Sasori and Utakata besides him.

"Touch my shoulder, Utakata."

He did, and suddenly both vanished in a yellow flash of light, and reappeared directly in front of the Namikaze mansion.

"I knew this was a good idea", Naruto said.

"What the hell was that?", Utakata asked shocked.

"It is my father's ultimate jutsu, the Hiraishin. He left the instruction for the seals in this house. After all, a genius expects everything and predicts everything.", the jinchuuriki explained, pointing at his house

The jinchuuriki stored away the corpse in a storage seal, and quickly ran to the hospital with Utakata.

Once reaching it, he asked the nurse where Karin Uzumaki was.

"Room 153, follow the corridor, the last door left."

Naruto thanked the nurse, told Utakata he could wait in the lobby, and ran to the room. He was blocked by the guards first.

"I'm her teammate, please let me through."

"Your name?", one guard asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze."

The other guard nodded, and opened the door to a security area in between, while the other guard already went inside.

"Of course, Uzumaki-Namikaze-san. Please leave your weapons on the table here and you can pass."

Naruto left his weapons and gear and went to the room. Walking into the room he saw Kankuro standing on the right side of the table, while Sakura and three nurses stood on the other side. The nurses held a bowl of a strange green liquid, which Sakura already held in her hands. On the operating table, there was Karin, sweating profousely.

"Is she going to be alright?", Naruto asked, walking next to Kankuro.

"I'll do my best, yes. I have located the poison in her heart. Please restrain her, she will start fighting.", Sakura answered.

Naruto and Kankuro held her down on both of her shoulders and her legs. Sakura held her hands over the heart of Karin, and the liquid went into Karin's chest. Indeed, she started twisting and turning and tried to sit up, but Kankuro and Naruto had an iron grip on her. When the liquid completely went into Karin's chest, she calmed down and laid on her back again.

The Konoha medic fumbled a bit with her hands, as if she was searching for something. After a few moments, she carefully pulled out the liquid again, with a bit of a metallic looking liquid inside of it.

"A metal based toxine. It directly found the way into her heart. Whoever did that, he was a genius.", Sakura summarized, placing the toxine on a metal plate carefully.

"She will need a bit of rest, but she is going to get better in a while.", Sakura said, smiling politely and bowing her head to the Suna-nin.

Naruto looked into her green eyes, which seemed to be a bit nervous under the intense gaze of the red feral eyes, but he nodded back.

"I have to thank you, Konoha-nin, you have saved my cousin and teammate, and I will be eternally grateful for that.", Naruto said in a sincere voice.

"Please, I'm Sakura Haruno, and there is no reason to thank me. It is my duty as a medic to help those in need.", Sakura answered.

Naruto nodded again, but heard that the soldiers behind him were running outside the hospital. Naruto was instantntly suspicious, and looked at Kankuro, who had a similar look on his face.

The two of them ran out of the hospital as well, Utakata following them, taking their weapons and gear, and saw a huge crowd gathered in the city center.

"What's going on here?", Kankuro asked an ANBU officer.

"S-sabaku-sama, it's about your brother.", he stammered ashamed.

"What is with Gaara?", Naruto asked just as concerned.

"He was taken hostage. Two ninja came here and took him.", he finalized.

"WHAT?!? How could that happen? What did they look like? Where did they take him?", Kankuro exploded.

"They were extremely powerful. One of them had a Konoha headband, just like you, with a slash. The other one had a slashed Kiri headband. They went onto the mountain there. Maybe you can catch them."

"I know them. Itachi and Kisame. We will have to strike quickly.", said Deidara, who just landed with the rest of the Konoha team.

"Itachi? I will go with you.", Sasuke told immediately.

"I can only take three with me at a time. I haven't created more birds yet.", Deidara told.

"Then you can run, we will go there with the bird.", Naruto told the group of Konoha-nin.

"Quick, hop on.", Deidara yelled. Naruto, Kankuro and Utakata jumped onto the bird, and it took off into the sky.

"Their trail goes there. We'll follow them. **Tools of the Hunt: Hyena Scent Search."** A horde of hyenas came from the desert and ran towards the scent of the two persons Naruto thought of.

"They just found a scent?", Deidara wondered.

"They search for the person I think of. If their scent is in their reach, they will start to follow it.", Naruto answered.

The horde ran into the direction towards an earthen looking mountain.

"Follow them.", Naruto ordered, and the clay user nodded.

At the flat top of the mountain, the animals encircled three figures and started to growl and bark violently.

Directly in front of the circle, the remaining Desert Hunt landed, and everyone besides Deidara jumped off the bird.

The hyenas opened up the circle, so that Naruto, Kankuro and Utakata could enter it as well.

 **"Kai."** , Naruto said, and the animals left the mountain to run back into the desert.

In front of them, there were three people. One with black, middle-long hair, a very visible scar across the face, pitch black eyes, and a slashed Konoha headband. He wore the same robe the Desert Hunt saw Sasori wearing.

The other man had shark-like skin and fangs, his little, frightening eyes were pitch black as well, and he wore a slashed Kiri headband, as well as a similar robe to Sasori. On his back, there was a giant object wrapped up in bandages.

And in front of them, on the ground, was the unmoving body of Gaara.

"Itachi, Kisame.", Naruto started, drawing two of his swords.

"Hello, Naruto-kun.", Itachi said, in a voice so stoic it rivaled Sasori's.

So it was true. They really knew he still lived.

"I see you have created some new allegiances.", Itachi said, looking specifically at Naruto's headbands and at Deidara.

"Ohoho, so that's the new hobby of yours, Deidara? And look, isn't that the punk Sasori told us about?", Kisame laughed, nodding to Kankuro.

"Who are you calling a punk, fish face?", Kankuro said, readying all his puppets, without his Iron Maiden though, which was still destroyed.

"Hahaha, look at how he is seething!", Kisame laughed even more, a freakish, animalistc grin plastered on his face.

"Indeed. I assume Sasori is dead?", Itachi asked, looking at Utakata.

"I assume Gaara is not.", Naruto countered, looking at his friend lying on the ground, with his back to the Akatsuki duo.

Gaara opened his left eye briefly, winked at Naruto, and closed it again. Naruto eyed the duo again.

"No, not yet. Unfortunately, he will die as soon as we extract the One Tails from him.", Itachi explained, with a voice that almost sounded apologetic.

"And that's just the point we won't agree on.", Kankuro told.

"And what are you gonna do about it?", Kisame provoked.

Naruto shook with anger and hatred. He heard once from the Akatsuki, when exactly those two tried to take him with them during the Chuunin exams. To hear that their plan was to kill the jinchuuriki with taking the Tailed Beasts though infuriated him beyond reason.

 ** _"Yeees, feel the power consume you, and consume them with it.",_** he heard something whispering in his head.

Naruto dropped onto one knee, gripping his head and tearing at his hair.

 ** _"They will kill him, and they will kill you and your team. Who knows what they will do to Karin, your only family, and a female nonetheless. Don't you think they would like to control this bloodline as well?"_**

"Look at him, he already gives up and cries.", Kisame taunted, but Itachi interjected.

"Kisame, stop.", he told with a firm voice, and even he got the message then.

"Oh no, not again.", Kankuro said.

"What is happening to them? That isn't the Kyuubi, right?", Utakata asked Kankuro.

"Yeah, he already used that power once. We still don't know what it is.", Deidara added on his bird in the air.

Naruto's skin started to turn red again, and his pained sobs turned into low growls. Suddenly, he jumped and directly charged at Kisame with incredible speed.

Kisame was able to quickly pull the object from his back out and clash it against Naruto's swords.

 ** _"Come on, take out Samehada, I have a huge appetite for sushi, hahahaha."_** , Naruto and another voice laughed hysterically, almost giving Kisame the chills.

The Akatsuki duo jumped back a few steps with Itachi holding Gaara, and waited for the next move.

 ** _"I'm sick of you already. You think you can stroll into our lives, take what is ours and just get away with it? No, we are going to kill you. I will personally ensure that we will fucking murder every single last one of you, and I will spit on your corpses like the animals you are."_**

'He's completely going insane. What is that?', Itachi thought, his gaze not changing.

The jinchuuriki jumped again and attacked Kisame carelessly, his two swords swining around viciously fast.

"Come, we can't let him fight alone!", Kankuro shouted, and sent out his puppets at Itachi, who dodged them easily.

 **"Suiton: Baburu Danmaku! (Water Style: Bubble Barrage!)"** , Utakata said, taking out his pipe and blowing into it, sending bubbles towards the location of Itachi.

Itachi jumped sideways, getting close to the edge of the mountain. Deidara already predicted that move and threw down a clay bomb.

 **"Bokuton: C1!"**

Itachi widened his raven eyes when he saw the white mass of explosive clay came closer to his face. The detonation created a rather big cloud of smoke, but the body of Itachi clearly was blown out of it and rolled down the mountain.

Unfortunately, Itachi turned into approximately a dozen crows before reaching the bottom of the mountain.

"Still as violent as ever, Deidara.", Itachi stated calmly, looking up to his former ally.

"Still as boring as ever, Itachi.", Deidara replied, a cocky grin plastered on his face as a counter to Itachi's stoic face. The little mouths on Deidara's hands started chewing already while he was waiting for the real Itachi to show back up.

"Come on, dance for my art, Uchiha!", Deidara laughed, crossing his arms and opening them up entirely while masses of clay left the mouths.

Itachi's black eyes turned red now, with black, shuriken-like forms in his eyes. The world slowed down visibly for the Akatsuki, while he already went through a combination of hand seals.

 **"Katon: Housenka no jutsu! (Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!)"**

 **"Bokuton: Geijutsu Bun'ya! (Explosion Style: Field of Art!** )"

Itachi took a deep breath, and then breathed out, while his middle and index finger where just below his mouth. With breathing out, a barrage of small fireballs left his mouth. They collided with the clay masses in mid-air, and caused each other to detonate. The fire spreading in the air blocked both ninja's views from each other

The fire died down slowly, and both of the fighters stood in the same spots as before.

The Uchiha's eyes, which were closed, opened slowly, while a trail of blood left his left eye.

'Oh fuck.', Deidara thought, and jumped off his bird.

 **"Amaterasu!",** the Uchiha calmly called out.

The bird was caught in a black flame which spread quickly over the clay body, but not before it was able to fly into the Akatsuki fighter.

 **"Bokuton: C2!",** the former Iwa-nin yelled, now from the ground on the mountain.

The body rammed into the Uchiha at full speed in a 90 degrees nosedive. The following explosion was at least double the size from his **Field of Art** technique. The black flames of **Amaterasu** flew around, giving the explosion a few black spots.

Deidara breathed in and out quicker, his chakra already lowered from the severe attacks he launched.

Behind Deidara was, again, a swarm of crows appeared. The animals flew into each other and formed into a humanoid form, which slowly turned out to be Itachi again. He, too, already breathed heavily from the starting chakra depletion.

Itachi turned around, since he noticed he stood back to back with a too lightly panting Kisame.

Deidara jumped back a few steps, and waved at Itachi tauntingly.

Itachi looked around him and asked himself:

"What? How's that possible?"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Utakata, Kankuro, Naruto and Kisame_

 **"Mizu Bunshin no jutsu! (Water Clone Jutsu!"**

The puddle of water in which Kisame stood in already turned into two clones, which all drew the wrapped Samehada swords.

The clones charged to Kankuro and Utakata, and the original clashed against an also charging Naruto.

 **"Kitsune no kenae wo kurae! (The fox becomes me!)"** , Naruto and the other voice roared, spinning two swords around in his hands. Two small, crimson red incarnations of the Kyuubi appeared and flew around the swords, roaring and quickly disappearing again.

 ** _"Come to me, swordsman. Let's see what you're made of!"_** , Naruto roared and clashed his two crimson shimmering swords.

"You are absolutely crazy. Heh, who would've thought I'd almost start to like you.", Kisame chuckled, taking a big swing with his Samehada.

Before the sword could chop off Naruto's upper body, the jinchuuriki turned into three red clouds.

'That technique again?', Kankuro, fighting the Water Clone of Kisame thought.

Naruto tried flying into Kisame, who widened his eyes seeing the technique. He quickly used Kawarimi to substitute himself with a log to dodge the attack. Naruto then dispersed the clouds and reappeared again.

'Isn't that...?', the Hoshigaki thought intensely.

"Hey kid, do you even know what you're holding in your hands?", Kisame asked his opponent, who stood still and grinned maliciously.

 ** _"Oooh, are you scared of my swords? You should be!"_** , he answered, charging into the Akatsuki fighter again.

Same fighter now had a toothy shark grin on his face as well, and jumped a bit back.

"Well, it's quite sad you rely on your weapons that much. Here I was, thinking you actually had talent.", Kisame said in a mockingly sad tone.

 ** _"Just stand still, sushi, I'll show you my talent."_** , Naruto countered in a much more aggressive tone than before, turned into three red clouds and flew towards Kisame again recklessly.

Kisame, who just went through a line of hand seals, grinned, baring his sharp fangs again, pushed his hands out, his palms laying on each other. Behind and around him, a water torrent shot out.

 **"Suiton: Daikodan no justu! (Water Style: Great Shark Bomb!)"**

The giant shark collided with the three small red clouds in mid-air and exploded, almost creating a lake from the amount of water streaming out of the technique.

When the water started to flow off the mountain, the unmoving body of Naruto, now with normal skin again, was revealed.

"...uuughh, what was that?", Naruto asked, his whole body aching and his muscles screaming at him to not move again, a feeling the Kyuubi tried to counter as much as possible.

"No matter how you're twitsing it", Kisame started "the Umbral Trespass is still ninjutsu, and thus completely vulnerable to my Great Shark Bomb."

He brought down his already unwrapped Samehada, which seemed to... bite Naruto.

The jinchuuriki felt chakra leaving his system rapidly. At this rate, his whole chakra would be depleted in maybe a minute, due to the large reserves of the Kyuubi.

"What...are you doing...to me?", Naruto asked groggily.

"A favour.", Kisame told unnaturely sterny letting Samehada do his work.

Before Naruto could further lose consciousness, a barrage of bubbles came flying directly at Kisame, who had to use Samehada to deflect them. The Hoshigaki jumped back a bit to leave the danger zone, and wasn't that surprised to see a free Utakata and Kankuro standing their, albeit Kankuro's breath was a little bit faster than Utakata's.

"Trying to hold the Six Tails in a water prison. Pathetic.", Utakata told, actually achieving the unachievable: Looking menacing with bubbles surrounding him.

Kisame turned around and noticed he was standing back to back with Itachi, who noticed him as well.

"What? How's that possible?", Itachi asked, looking around him.

"I think it's the punk up there.", Kisame told, pointing up into the air.

In the air, everyone saw a cloud made of sand, the Kazekage standing on top of it.

"Gaara, you're alive!", Kankuro yelled happily.

That at least explained how the sand started to surround the Akatsuki.

Gaara's black eye rings started to grow even darker. He held up his hands on his sides, and the sand started to rise and swirl around the two unmoving Akatsuki members.

After a few seconds, the fighters were surrounded by a pile of sand. Out of the sand gourd of Gaara, two gigantic hands formed out of sand emerged.

 **"Sabaku Kyū! Sabaku Soso! (Sand Coffin! Sand Burial!)"**

The hands collapsed against the pile of sand with extreme pressure, as if the hands were pushing against it.

From the enormous pressure, the sand hands exploded and the pile of sand expanded and flowed away, similar to water.

Speaking of water, after the sand flowed away, the Suna team saw Itachi and Kisame, standing in a protective water prison.

"Ohoho, the Shukaku is going serious.", the Akatsuki sword figher laughed.

Itachi nodded. "Naruto-kun, Kazekage-sama, please surrender. You are just delaying the inevitable."

As if on cue, the sky became increasingly cloudy, covering the desert in a protective shadow.

"This battle is hopeless. Make it easier for you and your friends. They won't have to suffer anymore, and they won't have to die.", Itachi warned in a calm voice.

When Itachi said 'die', the clouds in the sky sent off a little lightining in the distance, making the ground shake a bit because of the noisy thunder.

The team stood together again, with Gaara still in the air on his sand cloud. Noone dared to make over, taking their time to recover a bit from their previous fight. The first move was from a fresher Naruto, who drew two swords again and went into a defensive stance.

"Steady, guys. We won't go down without a fight.", the team leader told his partners. Utakata equipped his pipe again, Kankuro his three puppets, and Gaara's gourd started to release sand again.

"So be it.", Itachi told solemnly. Before anyone was able to make a move though, the ninja noticed the increasingly thick clouds and lightnings which seemed to gather directly above them.

"What's that?", Utakata whispered to his teammates.

"I don't know.", Kankuro answered.

 **"Jyutsu no na wa Kirin...(the name of this jutsu is Kirin...)"** , started a voice directly next to the Desert Hunt and Gaara, just before the top of the mountain. Everybody turned into the direction the voice was coming from, and noticed the Konoha reinforcements in form of Kakashi, Sasuke, and their new teammate have arrived.

"Otouto.", Itachi told in a calm voice, although he was a bit surprised that he was here.

Sasuke simply narrowed his eyes, and concentrated more on his jutsu. From the skies straight out of the clouds, a dragon made out of pure lightning emerged and roared majestically. Everyone, even Itachi, was visibly surprised by the technique.

 **"Raimei to tomoni chirei! (Now vanish with the roar of thunder!)"**

The dragon quickly dove down and, in just the blink of an eye, dropped down onto the spot Itachi was standing on.

"As fast as a lightning.", Naruto told, seeing the technique drop onto the Uchiha Akatsuki member.

Seeing the visible surprise on Kisame's face, who jumped away from Itachi's former spot and the destruction which was caused in the ground his partner was standing on, Naruto quickly jumped into the air and pointed his swords downwards to pierce the former Kiri-nin into his shoulders.

The Hoshigaki quickly jumped back before the impact could hit him. Thus, the two swords were embedded into the ground with a loud noise.

 **"Nitoryu: Seigi no yobikake! (Two Sword Style: Call of Justice!)"**

Naruto's swords embedded in the earth shined in a orange colour. A few metres in front of him in the air, directly above Kisame, there was a brief orange flash, and then two orange swords of pure chakra rained down blade first into the ground.

Unable to dodge, Kisame held up Samehada protectively. Accelerating fast, the swords collided with the legendary sword and pushed Kisame down. The falling of the Akatsuki fighter created a smoke cloud and shook the ground.

After the two powerful attacks violently buried craters into the ground, the mountain top filled with a silence, as if a thundering storm simply died down and vanished. The exhausted jinchuuriki fell down onto his knees and breathed heavily.

Naruto and Sasuke looked each other in the eyes intensely. Somehow, their gaze communicated something to each other, as if they knew each other for years but couldn't quite pinpoint from where.

Little did Sasuke know, they actually did.

After the smoke cleared, the teams looked into the two craters to see two corpses lying there. The corpses though had a problem. Those weren't Itachi and Kisame.

"Wait, who are they? Where are Itachi and Kisame?", Naruto asked confused.

Sasuke was just as surprised, but didn't react verbally. Kankuro was the only one looking as unnerved as Naruto. Utakata, Gaara, Kakashi and the unknown Konoha shinobi just looked stoically.

"Shouten no jutsu", Kakashi started, "they transferred a part of their chakra into these bodies, controlled them with it and let their bodies fight instead of their own. They are still very much alive."

"That was only a part of their strength?", Kankuro yelled.

"Yes, that wasn't their full power yet. Not surprising, this would've been too easy.", Kakashi sighed.

Naruto took a deep breath, and sheathed his swords back into his holsters. He stored away the corpses in storage scrolls, and placed them into his pocket.

"Guys, we're done here. Let's go to the Suna Council If Sasori is a traitor, I'm sure they would like to see his corpse. After that, I think we deserve a rest.", Naruto finished, and everyone on his team nodded.

"Konoha-nin", Gaara started to get the attention of the team, "as you officially helped to rescue me and defeat the enemy, I want to thank you for your assistance. Shall I bring you back to Suna, so you can reunite with your last team member?"

"That would be very nice, Kazekage-sama.", Kakashi bowed politely.

"Ok, then please stand still.", Gaara answered.

Sand left his gourd and was collected from around the battlefield to manifest itself under the Konoha and Suna team. Soon, everybody stood on a sand cloud similar to Gaara's and flew away into the distance back to the main village of Suna.

"I have to thank you too, Naruto-kun. You have saved the rest of Hakuba, the village Sasori attacked, and have rescued me, too. Thanks for the heads-up by the way.", Gaara nodded to Naruto, while caring not to speak too loud since the Konoha shinobi might just be close enough to hear.

"What do you mean heads-up? How where you alive after all?", Kankuro wondered. Even Utakata was interested.

"Well, it's interesting to see how fast an eagle can fly from an outer village of Suna to the Kazekage's office and warn him about dangerous warriors which might engage on him. Isn't that right, Chusei?", Naruto asked, while his eagle came back from the direction they flew to.

 _"Always striving for the best, hunter."_ , the eagle replied.

"Well, that explains how you were able to survive, Kazekage-sama.", Utakata answered. Kankuro just looked flabbergasted.

The Kazekage turned around to Utakata.

"I'm sorry, you are...?"

"I'm Utakata, jinchuuriki of the Six Tails. Naruto and his team saved me from an ambush from Sasori, another member of Akatsuki. An honour to meet you.", the bubble user told.

"It's an honour to me as well. Naruto, we can go to the council together. If you want, I will drop off Deidara, Utakata and Kankuro at your house."

"You can drop off Deidara if he wants to, but the others will join us to the council.", Naruto said, getting a confused stare from both the bubble and the puppet user.

"You'll see."

They nodded, and laid down on their backs. This was a very tough day, and the rest was something everyone of them needed.

"I won't go, we're going to stay together, yeah.", Deidara told, to which Naruto nodded.

Upon reaching the council, Gaara dropped off the Konoha team to the waiting Sakura, and dropped himself together with the Desert hunt in front of the entrance, were an enormous crowd gathered already.

"Hey look! Kazekage-sama is alive!"

"Who are those fellas following him?"

"They must've rescued him. Hooray to our saviours!"

The crowd cheered and applauded to the team, which was a bit surprised to have that much attention from the public. Though still happy, they waved to the crowd and made their way into the Suna council, but not before Naruto took a glimpse at the reuniting Konoha team, especially how hard Sakura hugged everybody, Sasuke of course the most.

'Some things never change, huh.', Naruto thought, but continued to walk into the hall of the council.

When Deidara, Utakata, Naruto, Kankuro and Gaara entered, the council already sat in their seats waiting for them.

"Lord Kazekage, I think I speak for the whole council if I say that we're very happy to see you alive and well.", Elder Chiyo stated with a slight smile.

"Gaara, you're fine!", Temari yelled, hugged him, and then punched him lightly onto his head.

"Don't ever make me worry like that again!", she shouted angrily, though her shaking voice gavd her away a bit.

Matsuri, who stood right next to Temari, was speechless herself, but quickly embraced Gaara and sobbed while burying her head in his chest.

"Gaara-sama, you're ok...", she told softly.

"It's still Gaara for you, Matsuri.", Gaara told sternly, not quite able to return the gestures from his sister and his assistant with as much vigor as they did.

"Ahem.", one of the elders coughed, but with a slightly playful smile seeing the actions of affection "I suppose there are a few topics that need to be discussed now, am I right?"

"Indeed", Naruto started, getting everyone's attention. "I want whatever bounty you have for these guys."

He dispelled his storage seals to revwal the corpses of the two unknown persons from the fight on the mountain, and especially, the corspe of Sasori.

"I-is that Sasori?", a shinobi stuttered. Even Chiyo was flabbergasted.

'He really turned himself into a puppet. Unbelievable.', she thought.

"The bounty for Sasori was 5 million Ryo.", Gaara stated. "When we know who these two are, we can give you the price for them as well."

"Woah, 5 million. We are fucking rich.", Kankuro yelled, giving a similarly celebrating Deidara a high five.

"Language, please.", a council member interrupted.

"The other thing is that I want to keep Sasori's corpse, so that Kankuro as the Kazekage's brother can fight with him as his puppet.", Naruto told, surprising everyone, especially Kankuro.

"That isn't a bad idea. Sasori was a nearly unstoppable force as a shinobi, he would do great as a puppet, too.", Kankuro told the council.

"Indeed, he would be a fine addition in the arsenal of every puppet master.", Chiyo started. "Very well Kankuro, you get to keep Sasori as your puppet. Make good use of him."

"Thank you Lady Chiyo, I will.", the Sand-nin bowed.

"Then you may leave now, I believe everyone is in need for rest after those heavy fights.", Gaara told the group of mercenaries. "I will make sure to add a bit to the 5 million bounty. Consider it as a thank you for saving my life."

"Thank you, Gaara, but you don't have..."

"Hey Naruto, it's impolite to interrupt the Kazekage.", Utakata stated.

"Gosh, you're on a money trip as well?", the leader sighed, and immediately turned back to the council.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. I want to introduce you to Utakata, the Six Tails jinchuuriki. I would like him to join the ranks of Suna, and the Desert Hunt as well."

"That won't be a problem. Be here tomorrow in the afternoon and we can settle everything.", the Kazekage told the jinchuuriki, who simply nodded.

"Then let's go home guys.", Naruto said, sealed away the corpse of Sasori, but not before ripping off his red-clouded cloak, and left the building with his team.

When they left the palace, the crowd was still very present, but were busy partying for their Kazekage.

"Kankuro.", Naruto started, drawing the attention of his partner, "go to the best tailor you can find, and reproduce those cloaks 12 times. Instead of red, I want sand coloured clouds on it though."

"Ok.", the puppet master answered, taking the damaged piece of clothes "but why 12 times?"

"The Akatsuki are on the hunt for the jinchuuriki, something you are going to inform us about back home more Deidara, along with some other little _details_ you seemed to leave out. We won't let Akatsuki have them, though. We will be the first to find every jinchuuriki in the Elemental Nations, and unite them into one unstoppable team. Today, the Desert Hunt was reborn. The hunters have become the hunted. We won't stop until every jinchuuriki stands at our side, and every warrior of the Akatsuki is defeated.

By the Kyuubi, the hunt begins!"

 _A/N: Hey guys. How did you like the chapter? Have to say I'm happy I was able to write such a long chapter, but I still seem to struggle with writing larger scale battles. Maybe you have some tips? Leave comments, and you'll here from me next time!_


	15. The Hunt Begins

_A/N: Hi guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'. Since there isn't much to say today, let's get right into it._

"So, let me get this straight.", Naruto commenced "this organization recruits super strong Kage level shinobi, to hunt and extract the bijuu from their container to seal them into some kind of statue?"

The Desert Hunt, now with Karin again, sat in the former dining room of the Namikaze family, and turned to Deidara.

"Yeah, that would be all I know.", the former Iwa-nin sighed exasperately.

"Tsk, I can't believe it. Why the hell didn't you tell us?", Naruto asked loudly.

Just as loud, Deidara answered: "What do you mean, why didn't I tell you? 'Oh, by the way, I'm a former member of a organization that hunts people like you to suck out your powers and seal them away in an ancient statue to do god knows what with them.' That's kind of an odd way to introduce myself, don't you think?"

"Hello, we could've died today! It was possible that these people get one fucking third of the Tailed Beasts in one damn day! How couldn't you warn us!?", the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki yelled.

"Because I wanted to leave everything behind!", Deidara yelled, silencing his partner.

"I followed them after they found me in Iwa, because I thought it was good that someone needed me, someone had a use for me. Yes, I'm strong, but do you know how thick-headed Iwa ninja are? 'What if he turns against us, we can't control this much power. He would just bomb us and go away!' Seeing the things I was supposed to do in Akatsuki, I realized that they weren't as uncaring for me as Iwa, but all the more evil. So when I was alone once, without my former partner Sasori, I hopped onto my bird and flew. I went as far away as I could, and I didn't look back. I never wanted to, I never had to. Until now. I just hoped that I could leave the past behind and start a new life somewhere else. I didn't realize that they would find me eventually. Then I met you, and I knew I've heard your name somewhere. There I was, a former Akatsuki, teaming up with the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki in a country ruled by the One Tails Jinchuuriki. I knew this was fate, I knew that now was the moment my past would catch up with me, I just hoped it wouldn't be that soon. I'm sorry for getting all of you in trouble.", the Bokuton user finished solemnly.

Everyone looked at each other, except Naruto who simply looked on the table in front of him. It was one sentence specifically that echoed through his head.

'What if he turns against us, we can't control this much power.'

Deidara stood up and walked towards his room.

"I'll get my stuff, and get away from you. I don't believe that you want me to stay here any longer."

"Naruto!", Karin yelled to her cousin with a worried expression.

Naruto watched the back of the Akatsuki disappear into one of the chambers. After a minute, Deidara already stuffed together all of his belongings and went for the door of the mansion.

When he opened it, he felt the impact of another force closing the door again. Looking to his left, he saw the red-haired Jinchuuriki next to him, closing the door.

Then he started to speak.

"I understand."

Deidara was a bit taken aback by the short reply to his speech, and the confusion must've been in his face as well, hence Naruto started again.

"I understand why you didn't tell us. All my life I only told you people here that I contain the Kyuubi. I wouldn't have wanted for anyone to find out either."

Deidara nodded understandingly, and looked briefly onto the ground before he locked eyes again with Naruto.

"Thank you, but what now?", the Bokuton user asked.

Naruto frowned sternly, and answered: "What do you mean, 'what now'? Did I allow you to take a break? Get your belongings into your room and come back here, we have a lot of work to do. Hurry!"

Deidara grinned, nodded and ran back into his room.

Quickly he paced back into the conference room. A billboard was already placed at a wall, although still empty.

"Deidara, in which villages are the other six Jinchuuriki?", the leader asked.

"Two are in Kumogakure, two are in Iwagakure, one is in Kirigakure and one in Takigakure.", he told Naruto.

Naruto had a map of the Shinobi world, and pinned down a piece of paper for every Jinchuuriki.

"Ok, do we have names, maybe what they look like?"

"My information is old news, but I can recall their names.

The Iwa-nin are Han, jailor of the Five Tails, and Roshi, jailor of the Four Tails.

The Kumo-nin are Yugito Nii, jailor of the Two Tails and Killer Bee, jailor of the Eight Tails.

The Taki-nin is Fū, jailor of the Seven Tails.

The Kiri-nin is Yagura Karatachi, jailor of the Three Tails."

"Yagura Karatachi? You mean the Yondaime Mizukage?", Kankuro asked confused.

Deidara nodded.

"Yeah, exactly. That's him."

"I remember meeting him, it was a long time ago. He seemed so normal then, only a bit short. It was before those Bloodline Wars happened.", Naruto told.

"Should we really take that criminal with us? How do you think would Kiri react if a bunch of Suna-nins took him with them?", Utakata asked.

"If we get him at all. Since there is another Mizukage now, I wouldn't doubt they already killed him for his crimes a long time ago.", Deidara told.

"That's unlikely, we would've heard about a free and rampaging Three Tails because the jailor is suddenly dead.", Karin interjected.

"And I wouldn't be too fast with judging him.", she added.

"What do you mean? He murdered entire families and clans in one of the most bloodiest civil wars ever.", Utakata countered.

"There was always something fishy about that whole story. I mean, can you imagine it? Sure, Yagura was a harsh leader, but he was fair. Suddenly, he gets crazy and starts to slaughter his people. I think we really have to investigate on that, and talk to him.", Karin summed up.

"Ok, but I think we will search for him at the end. I believe he will be the hardest to reach. Do you know anything about the others, Deidara?"

"Hmm. Like I said, my information is old news, but I would suggest we start with Han and Roshi in Iwa. I remember from my time in Iwa that they were pretty much outcasts. Fū in Taki was very well treated, like she was the guardian of the village. Killer Bee is the adopted brother of the Raikage, and Yugito is pretty high-ranked herself. Yagura is held god knows where, so the best option would be Iwa."

Naruto nodded, absorbing the information. He was happy to see how other Jinchuuriki were able to be so praised in their respective villages, but at the same time a bit sad he wasn't allowed to have that. A Jinchuuriki as a brother for a Kage? How crazy was that?

 ** _"Should I tell you why it's especially that piece of information you're so fed up about, or would it be just stating the obvious?",_** the Kyuubi asked amused.

'What do you mean, fox?', Naruto asked.

 ** _"Oh please, kit. Anyone who wasn't blind was able to see how you ogled that old vixen when you met her the first time with that perverted Sannin. Remember, I feel everything you feel as well."_** '

'Shut up, idiot. I didn't look at her like that. Besides, the last part sounded kinda gross.', Naruto countered.

The demon snickered, and answered him: ** _"You can try to deny it, but there is no use. The pheromones you dropped everytime you saw her were proof enough. At least you got over that pink-haired bitch after she fucking hit you the umpteenth time."_** '

'No matter how much I cared for baa-...the Hokage back then, she still knew who my parents were and didn't tell me.', Naruto yelled back.

 ** _"Ever though about why she did that though?"_** , the demon told calmly.

Naruto actually wasn't able to answer that. Partially because he didn't know what to say, partially because he was pulled back into the real world.

"So, we are going to find Han and Roshi then.", Utakata stated finally.

Quickly re-gaining his composure, Naruto nodded and turned to Kankuro.

"Kankuro, can you find a bounty contract for someone in Iwa?"

"After that stunt we pulled off before and our popularity started to skyrocket? Yeah, I think we will find a way to Iwa.", the Kazekage's brother nodded.

"Good, then go and find something when we're finished. Deidara, what can you tell us about the other Akatsuki members?", Naruto asked and turned back to the former Iwa-nin.

"So, since I left and Sasori is dead, we have Itachi and Kisame. You already know them.

Itachi, the genius of Konoha, extremely proficient with every type of jutsu, especially anything involving his Sharingan.

Kisame, one of the former Legendary Swordsmen of the Mist, wielder of the chakra-absorbing Samehada, with such large chakra reserves he's actually called the 'Tailless Tailed Beast.'

Hidan, an immortal Jashin priest. Absolutely crazy, he can transfer the damage he inflicts upon himself on his targets with a blood ritual.

Kakuzu, former bounty hunter in Takigakure. He...well, he takes the hearts from his mighty opponents and places them in himself. I think he has 5. I suppose you have to destroy all of his hearts before you can kill him.

Black Zetsu. Noone knows where he

has come from, what he is and what his fighting skills are. I only know he can travel through the earth.

Tobi. Same thing like with Black Zetsu, we don't know where he has come from, who he actually is, and how he fights. I only know he can teleport himself with some kind of portal jutsu.

Then there are Konan and Pain. Besides Pain being the leader and Konan his right hand, and that Pain has the Rinnegan, I don't know anything about them."

The Desert Hunt looked at each other, contemplating.

"Man, those people sound beyond Kage level strong. Do we even have a chance to beat them?", Kankuro asked, though everyone actually asked this question already themselves.

Naruto clapped his hands together to get everyones attention.

"Yes guys, they may sound pretty unbeatable, but remember: We're going to find the other Jinchuuriki before them, and then, I believe there is no way that they can stop us!"

Everyone looked at Naruto, and nodded.

The leader started to talk again: "So, I believe we deserve at least a little bit of rest. So, all of you have free for the rest of the day. Kankuro, you try to find a bounty contract, but you of course are free to do whatever you want afterwards as well. Make sure to be prepared, tomorrow we will go at 8 o'clock. Kankuro, did the tailor say how much time he needs?"

"Yep, he said tomorrow at seven in the morning he would be finished."

"Sweet. Then all of you, enjoy your day.", Naruto finished finally, retreating to his own chamber.

 _With Naruto_

Naruto sat down at his desk, where his eagle Chusei already stood.

 _'Hello, hunter. What are you doing?'_

"Hey Chusei. I'm trying to create a seal which enables the user to see in a sandstorm.", he answered, thinking.

 _'How are you going to do that?'_

'Good question, next question", he thought, his mind gears working like crazy.

"Maybe if I seal away a part of the body which regulates the sensitivity of your eye. You won't have to close them anymore. Like Orochimaru did once with the chakra from the Kyuubi."

 _'Well, you can't know until you try.'_

'You're right. I need someone who can't see through the sandstorm.", Naruto told, looking intensely at his eagle.

The eagle looked at Naruto as well, and noticed the look in his eyes.

 _'Forget it, hunter.'_

"Aww, come on. Everyone else is probably

gone by now. Besides, I am probably able to reverse everything I'm doing."

 _'That doesn't sound very relieving, hunter.'_

"It'll be fine, now come over here.", he said, grabbed the eagle, and put it onto the ground in the middle of his room.

"Now, stand still. **Gogyu Fuin! (** **Five Pronged Seal!** )

In front of Naruto's opened hand were five little flames in a purple/black colour. Softly, he pushed his palm onto his eagles face to apply the seals to his eyes, making the flames disappear.

"So, I hope I shut off the correct parts of your brain. **Sunagakure no Jutsu!"**

The sandstorm spread through the room, filling it put completely.

"Can you see something, Chusei?"

 _'Yes, argh. I see sand particles flying into my eyes. Anything else? Nope, not a trace of it.'_

"Huh, should've known. **Kai!"**

The sand dispelled again, and Naruto pulled the flames out of Chusei's face again, reversing the seal.

"Hmm, how can we do it?", Naruto thought about it.

"So, my **Gogyu Fuin** simply countered your reflex to close your eyes. That apparently did not work."

 _"Well, us not being able to see in the sand is basically just an elemental disadvantage we have.",_ Chusei told.

"And I did not counter that. Sealing away a part of your brain doesn't do anything. If the **Gogyu Fuin** is supposed to counter a chakra nature, there has to be a **Yonyo Fuin** first. Wait, I have an idea! I just need someone with chakra this time. **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!** "

A shadow clone appeared in a poof of smoke, and stood there waiting for the real Naruto to move.

 **"Yonyo Fuin: Genso no seijakusei! ("Four Pronged Seal: Elemental Vulnerability!")** Four little orange flames appeared at Naruto's hand, and he rammed them into he clones stomach.

 **"Sunagakure no Jutsu!"** Once again, the sandstorm filled the room to the brim.

"Hey, can you see through the storm?", Naruto asked his clone.

"No boss, my eyes feel like they're on fire when I try to open them.", the clone responded.

"Perfect. Now, again. **Gogyo Fuin!** "

Naruto applied the seal, again onto the clones stomach, direclty above his **Yonyo Fuin.** "How is it now?"

"Better. It looks like I'm under water now, everything is a bit blueish."

 _"It is probably the chakra you see. Similar to how the Byakugan sees the people. But how can he see now?"_ "It's because of the **Yonyo Fuin. The Elemental Vulnerability Seal** is actually a simple seal to make someones chakra system more vulnerable to a certain element. Normally, it's not very useful since you have to get very close to your opponent to apply it on the stomach, which makes it very predictable and risky. Combining earth and wind, I can make someone vulnerable to sand. That's the reason why it's not possible to make someone vulnerable to wood, since wood means being weak against all elements. The nature of a **Gogyu Fuin** is to counter a **Yonyo Fuin** as long as it's apllied directly above it. That way, Orochimaru was able to stop me from using the Kyuubi's chakra, because dad's seal is based on four elements. Haha, awesome, we made it!", Naruto finished his explanation with a cheer, dispelling his clone and the sand again.

 _"Congratulations, hunter. You and your comrades now truly can call yourselves 'Desert Hunt'."_ "Yeah, that's true. Nice, I can continue working on the Mokuton."

Naruto went into a meditating position and focused his mind onto all elements like before. Again, he was able to move a few roots around. He tried to get a feeling for the wood and how it moved. He tried to twist it more, making a constricting movement. He moved his hands upwards, trying to move all the wood there was on the ground, without the wood he was standing on. He managed to lift it off with all his might, but with every second his body shook more in concentration. With ever centimeter it sank back onto the ground, he grew more frustrated, and therefore the wood sank down even more.

"Damn it!", Naruto yelled when all the roots turned back into the wooden planks and landed on the ground again "why is this so fucking hard?"

Naruto remembered the words of his master on the scroll.

 _"Wood is influenced by every element. Therefore, it embodies balance. Only if your soul is at peace, and your spirit is balanced, you are able to use the Mokuton to its fullest potential, and step into my shoes completely."_ The jinchuuriki just sighed. "It would be much easier if sensei was still around."

He tried it again, but simply got the same results. His initial successes even got less due to his increasing frustration.

After an hour of trying and not being able to pull it off, he plopped himself down onto his bed and closed his eyes to relax a bit.

Naruto then thought of the book he stole from Orochimaru, and started to read it.

'Maybe there is something interesting here.'

 _With Kankuro and Karin_ "Hey Kankuro, where are you going?", Karin asked the puppet user who has about to leave the mansion.

"Hi Karin. I was about to go to my brother first, and then to a pub to find a contract for Iwa.""Why are you going to the Kazekage?"

"I'll inform him about Naruto's plans. I know Naruto wouldn't want to tell, because he doesn't want any more help, especially not from someone who has a village to represent and therefore a lot more to lose than simply his life. On the other hand, I know Gaara would especially want to know when Naruto chooses to gather all Jinchuuriki.", Kankuro finished, walking out together with Karin.

"Then I'll come with you, if you don't mind."

"Course not, let's go."

The two walked peacefully through the sandy brown streets of Sunagakure. Many people came to them, bowed to them and asked for autographs. One older chunin was especially enthusiastic.

"Thank you a lot, Kankuro-sama, for saving our Kazekage. And you too, milady.", he told them both.

"It wasn't just the two of us. The Desert Hunt, our new mercenary cell, did it in a combined effort. We took down Sasori as well!", Kankuro answered, not being able to hide the genuine pride from his voice. Karin also wasn't able to hide the smile.

"You did what? You mean _the_ Sasori??", he asked dumb-founded, raising even more attention then before.

"Yes people, it was us.", Karin nodded.

"Everyone, cheer for the Desert Hunt, killers of Sasori and saviour of our Kazekage!"

"Hooray!", the crowd yelled together.

"Everyone, celebrate. Unfortunately, we have to go to my brother, we will join you another time."

Even though the crowd was disappointed, the celebrations were going on.

The two left the group, and stood in front of another man and woman.

"Yeah, good job Kankuro. It must've been really hard to kill Sasori and free the Kazekage from those two, right?"

Karin examined the two figures carefully. The man who spoke seemed to be in his mid to late thirties, with grey-white hair, stubbles on his face, a scar that went across the right side of his face, just skipping his deep blue eyes.

The woman was a beautiful raven-haired ninja, who was maybe 5-10 years younger than the man. Her raven hair was tied together into a set of dreadlocks, complementing her mocca skin together with her pitch black eyes. Both wore the same grey short sleeved, but battle torn shirts, and short grey pants.

"Thank you, Akira. A shame that you weren't able to watch it.", Kankuro answered with a smirk, his thanks tainted by a bit of sarcasm.

"Yeah, really a pity. Didn't know you could do more with those puppets than just playing with them.", the woman sneered with a similar smirk.

"Maya, charming as ever.", Kankuro told.

"Kankuro, obvious as ever.", she replied.

"And who might this fine young lady be, Kankuro. Finally a girl you haven't chased away, huh?", the man called Akira spoke, just adding to the strange but definetely hostile atmosphere of the whole conversation.

"My name is Karin", she introduced, a light blush on her caused by Akira's implications "you are?"

"Someone who doesn't know us, how refreshing. I'm Akira, this is my comrade Maya. We are part of the independent mercenary group 'The Abyss'. We'll watch your career with great interest.", he finished, leaving the two Suna-nin standing in the street.

"Tsk, faking assholes.", Kankuro said, walking towards the Kazekage tower.

"Why? I was surprised you didn't start to play with the puppets on the battlefield myself.", Karin said, giggling a bit at Kankuro's angry face.

He himself now had a smirk on his face and replied: "Well, when I saw you wrap those chains around everyone, I thought you wanted to start some weird BDSM fantasy of yours right on the battlefield."

Karin blushed a deep red and chased after a running and laughing Kankuro. "Come here, you idiot!"

They ran after each other until they reached the Kazekage tower, getting weird looks from the palace guards. They ran until they reached the Kazekage's office, getting similar looks from Temari and Matsuri, while Gaara had his usual emotionless face.

"Is everything all right with you, Kankuro? Or shall I be worried that you did something again?", Gaara asked, a tiny bit of amusement in his voice.

"It's not my fault! I'm not the one who tries to live out my dominance fetishes on the battlefield!", Kankuro yelled while pointing at Karin, making Temari giggle, Gaara lift his non-existing eyebrows and Matsuri blush.

"Well I'm not the one playing with puppets like a little baby."

"Who're you calling baby, you're shorter than me!"

The three looked at the pair bickering like two children. Gaara simply watched, his gaze not giving anything away, Temari laughed more with every insult they threw at each other, and Matsuri just squealed inwardly about how cute the two looked together.

"You two can discuss about fetishes and roleplay another time, maybe do that somewhere private. Suna has no need to find out what your preferences in the bedroom are.", Gaara said, silencing the two blushing ninja and making the two other giggle again.

After everyone calmed down again, Gaara asked: "So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Kankuro nodded. "Right, it's about Naruto. Tomorrow, we will start to search for the remaining Jinchuuriki in the Elemental Nations, so they can join the Desert Hunt."

Temari and Matsuri seemed to be a bit taken aback by the news, but the Kazekage simply nodded and stood up, walking to his cupboard.

"Yeah, I already predicted that he would want to do that once he found out what the Akatsuki wanted."

"You knew those people existed?", Karin asked the Suna leader.

Gaara opened the cupboard, which was rather a closet filled with clothes, and continued: "No, knowing them isn't exactly the correct term. I didn't know more than what the rumors told us about them, but I had a suspicion that they might actually exist. But since Naruto came back and I was taken hostage, I knew he wouldn't stay here for too long before he tried to fight them and save their victims. I'm already prepared for this.", the Kazekage finished, taking a few big strawhats with a Kanji sign on each of it out of the closet. They looked similar to those Itachi and Kisame had when they first attacked the Hidden Leaf. Gaara placed three of those strawhats on his desk, the rest were carefully put into a bag which then stood next to his desk.

"What are you going to do, Gaara?", Kankuro asked his brother.

Picking up the strawhat at the top, which had the Kanji sign for "Tanuki" on it, and putting it on his head, he answered: "I will come with you. Temari, you will substitute me as long as I'm gone. Matsuri, you are to assist my sister like I would expect you to assist me.", he ordered, leaving no room for discussion.

Temari, flabbergasted at being the subsituting Kazekage, simply nodded silently. Matsuri, surprised herself, spoke up: "Ano, Gaara-sama.."

The viscious narrowing of his eyes made her start again. "G-gaara...I can't stay here."

"And why is that, Matsuri?", he asked in his familiar monotone voice.

"B-because..because I want to come with you!", Matsuri exclaimed, causing Gaara to frown a bit.

"No chance, you will stay here. I don't want you to get hurt. This order is final."

"I can take care of myself, and b-besides, who will take c-care of you when you're gone?", she said, her soft voice sounding firm despite her stuttering.

Gaara's eyes widened a bit, he did not expect such an answer. Everyone else exchanged knowing glances and nods.

"Why would you take care of me in such danger? I do not want you to risk your life so recklessly and yet you want to join, even though I order you not to. Why would you?", his voice asked curiously. It sounded like an innocent child, asking his parents about the secrets of his world.

Matsuri blushed, realizing the corner into which she talked herself right now. It was hard to admit her not so secret feelings for her leader, especially not in front of other people.

"B-because I want to protect you as well. It.. it is not only my duty, but I just want to.", Matsuri told, making everyone except Gaara look a bit disappointed.

The Kazekage still held his widened gaze on his blushing assistant, though now, she was able to look him into his eyes with an unwavering stare that wouldn't take no for an answer as well.

The One Tails jinchuuriki's eyes went back into their normal state. He grabbed the bag still leaned against his desk, and took out a hat which had the Kanji for "Cat" on it.

Matsuri saw the Kanji as well and observed her crush walking over to her, placing the hat firmly on her.

With a little upwards bending of the corners of his lips, Gaara told: "Then I, Tanuki, welcome your to your new mission, Cat."

Matsuri blushed a bit.

'He even remembered how much I love my cat and made a hat for me.'

"Wait, how did you know I would want to join you?", Matsuri asked, confused.

"Heh, I just know you, Matsuri.", Gaara told, looking intensely into her black orbs.

'He doesn't even know how charming he is.', Kankuro thought proudly.

He finally broke the eye contact, and took the two remaining hats on his desk.

He gave Kankuro the one which had the Kanji for "Scorpion", and Karin the one which had the Kanji for "Grasshopper".

"Grasshopper. Witty.", Karin told the Kazekage a bit bemused, and put on the hat.

"Scorpion. Yeah, that fits perfectly.", the puppet master told, putting on his hat.

"When did Naruto want to go?", Gaara asked.

"Tomorrow in the morning.", came Karins quick reply.

"Fine. After we made Utakata a Suna-nin, we can go. Please be present at 6 am in the council chambers.", the Kazekage finalized.

The two Desert Hunt ninja nodded and left the Kazekage's office and the tower.

"So, now we'll get a contract and afterwards, I'll get a replacement for my Iron Maiden, I almost forgot that. Naruto gave me the remains of my Kabuto puppet, I'll have to repair that as well.", Kankuro sighed. This was too much work for a free afternoon.

"Yeah, sorry about that.", the Uzumaki told a bit embarassed.

"Don't worry. It was only natural our first fight wouldn't go that well. We are getting better already.", the puppet user interjected, raising her spirits again.

She nodded and followed Kankuro to the pub he already recruited Deidara in, the _Red Cloud._ Their faces were concealed by their straw hats, but they raised them upwards to scan the room for potential clients from Iwagakure.

Karin noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room, a Iwa headband strapped around his throat. The rest of his body was covered in regular brown and beige street clothes. His face though was hidden by a strange orange, swirled mask and a hood.

Karin pinched her partner a bit into his side and nodded towards the man in the corner of the pub. Kankuro nodded and followed her to the stranger.

Both sat down in front of him and lifted their hats to uncover their faces for their potential client.

"Ahh, the infamous Desert Hunt, I suppose. The message of you saving your Kazekage really spread fast through Suna. I have a job, and I think your perfect for it.", the man started.

"Correct. What would that be?", Kankuro started.

"Tsuchikage-sama has put a bounty on a defected Jonin and his followers. They are hiding in a little camp they arranged in a mountain range just next to the village. This would be considered a B-rank mission. The contract deals with the details.", the man finished, handing over a paper scroll.

Kankuro opened the scroll and quickly scimmed through it, taking in the picture of the Jonin.

"Alright, this seems fine, the price is acceptable. We are in. Can we contact anyone in Iwa for more information on the terrain and our enemies?", Kankuro asked.

"Of course. I'll return to Iwa in about an hour from now. Speak to me in a tavern in the main village. It's called _Infinite Dream."_

"Infinite Dream, ok. An honour to make business with you.", the puppet master finished, while the masked man nodded and left the pub.

"Huh, strange.", the redhead Uzumaki spoke, a very thoughtful expression on her face.

"What is it?", Kankuro asked while stuffing the contract into his pocket.

"Who would defect from a village, just to build their camp in close range to it so they can be captured any time?"

The puppet user shrugged. "A long time ago, I've learned that those who don't question the stupid tasks people pay their money for survive the longest in this business. Come on, we'll search for a new puppet.", he told, standing up himself.

Karin, still in deep thought, stood up and left the pub as well.

 _With Deidara and Utakata_

The Jinchuuriki and ex-Akatsuki awkwardly sat next to each other in the garden of the mansion, which was in the centre of the square building. Deidara was currently working on forming a new clay bird, which looked like a child playing with dough. Utakata seemed to be meditating, a few bubbles flying around him.

Deidara looked at the jailor of the Six Tails curiously, and asked: "How is it?"

Utakata opened his visible eye and looked at the still working former Iwa-nin.

"What do you mean?"

"To have a Bijuu. I never asked Naruto that to be honest."

Utakata thought for a few moments, and spoke again in his tranquil voice.

"It is very special indeed. Everything that makes you human, you have a second time. A spirit, a soul, a voice, a mind. There is someone else in your head. He talks to you, he has his own opinion, he has his own feelings. It's the others though that are bothering. Everyone looks at you like a monster, if they look at you at all. If you are lucky, as Yugito Nii, Killer Bee and Fū, and people realize that you are your very own entity, only then are you able to live a peaceful life, even a heroic one."

Deidara nodded, looking to the ground. "Do you regret being a Jinchuuriki?"

"To be honest with you, no. I like it actually. Being together with a Bijuu and having this kind of life unveils the people around you. You see their true colours, and only you. I mean, every village somehow wants to portray itself as a unity, you have your brothers and sisters in arms, everyone fighting for the greater good. In Kiri especially, if you have proven yourself in combat, you will get the respect you are craving for. Suddenly, when there is a Jinchuuriki involved though, everyone seems to forget about that.

That is why I left Kiri. Where is the use in such noble values, when you drop them, not even try to defend them, whenever there is just a little tremor ringing through the earth?

Those are the moments when people forget, that those tremors go through the ground we are all standing on.

And that is why I joined Naruto. Behind the bloody, malicious red eyes of the strongest demon alive and known to mankind, and the murderous voice swearing to kill anyone who stands in our way, I see a frightened and deeply hurt boy, who simply wishes to have a place in this world where he is wanted and appreciated like everybody else."

 _The next morning_ Our protagonist woke up slowly, lifting a book he read entirely the last night from his face. He placed it onto the night stand next to him, collected his battle gear and strolled into the assembly room of the Namikaze mansion. Everybody seemed to be ready, and already in the new uniforms Naruto had ordered. Everyone, Deidara, Karin, Utakata, Kankuro, Gaara and his assistant.

Wait..what?

"Yo guys. Gaara, what are doing here?"

"Good morning, Naruto. I am here because Matsuri and I are going to join you."

Naruto looked shocked, and shook his head.

"I can't do that. You are the Kazekage, and I don't believe what we are going to do is actually legal."

"Naruto, as I already said once: You have saved me from myself, and I don't think I can ever fully repay you for that. I think your plan is very noble. You made it possible for me to have a true home, and now you want to do that for the other Jinchuuriki as well. Me being the Kazekage won't be a problem, I made sure of that. We will come with you, that is final.", the Kazekage finished in his stoic voice.

Naruto narrowed his eyes angrily, but closed them and sighed. He looked at his team one by one, and the new hats everyone wore.

Deidara wore "Bird"

Kankuro wore "Scorpion"

Karin wore "Grasshopper"

Utakata wore "Slug"

Gaara wore "Tanuki"

Matsuri wore "Cat"

Naruto walked towards the table in the middle, grabbed the hat which had the Kanji for "Fox", written over it, and put it onto his hat.

"Well", he turned around to look at the two "Gaara, Matsuri.

Welcome to the Desert Hunt."

 _A/N: Hey guys, sorry there was no action in it, but I thought it would be good to give the characters a little bit of bonding time. Leave reviews, and stay tuned for the next chapter!_


	16. Target: Iwagakure

_A/N: Hi guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'_. _I'm sorry yet again, that it took me that long to write a new chapter, but I'm in a rather unproductive point in life. I'm trying my best to fight it_ , _though._

 _I just want you to know that i have my difficulties getting motivated sometimes, and I have a problem with balancing the characters (since I think the canon balancing is bullshit at times). I hope you nevertheless enjoy it._

r **ealfan16:** **I'm glad to make you feel excited about this story. It's strange to read the story you've written yourself, but reading positive feedback really makes me enjoy writing and reading it over more. Thank you!**

 **And I'm pretty sure your Artemis comment was some reference I didn't get, sorry XD**

 **Vi** **ktor Marschall: Yeah, I got the feeling that a bit of team building and character dev was needed, just simple fighting and chasing around won't do it all the way.**

 **jh831: He told her that he was informed about it, like someone told her that the Namikaze name from his gravestone was his father and he didn't know about him. True, I could've handled that a bit better, but since Naruto technically shouldn't be alive, I doubt there would be suspicions regarding him.**

 **Since I've noticed it a few times while I'm writing this story, I want to tell you in general: I won't answer any questions regarding the future abilities, development or plot of this story at all. Even if it is something I wouldn't be coming close to considering, I will never approve or deny of any statement that would spoil my plans. I hope you understand that.**

 _Now, enjoy the next chapter_ _!_

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 _Iwagakure no sato - border lands_

The rocks and impressive mountain sides towered towards the infinite, clear skies of Iwagakure. A few houses, scattered all around, came into sight, and in the distant horizon, the main village of Iwa came into sight.

"All right guys, we'll land in a kilometer. The pub our client wanted us to meet in is in the south of the village, we can walk there. The fake IDs the Kazekage gavr us should suffice for identification.", Deidara summarized.

"How will you identify yourself, Gaara?", Kankuro yelled towards the sand platform his brother and Matsuri flew on.

"I will identify as Hiro, a simple faceless bounty hinter, and Matsuri is my little sister Maka. The wigs and coloured contact lensed will conceal us enough.", the sand leader replied with his usual even voice.

Deidara and Karin tried to pry their lips together so they wouldn't start laughing, Utakata shook his head, while Kankuro simply sweatdropped. Matsuri, as usual, just fidgeted a bit uncomfortably.

"Your... uh... your sister?", Kankuro repeated.

"Yes. Is something the matter?", the Jinchuuriki questioned quizzically.

Kankuro just looked at him, but then shook his head "Nah, everything's fine, bro."

After landing outside the village and talking to the border patrol, showing theu IDs and bounty contract, the group entered the great village.

It was funny. Despite its extensive hate against it, Iwagakure couldn't deny that, apart from the material, this village looked a lot like Konoha.

But the hate for the leaf village was apparent, so much that even Naruto stuffed away his hitai-ate. Even as a former Leaf-nin, he doesn't want to risk any unnecessary fights, and hid away behind his hat.

Entering the pub, the group figured it looked more like a saloon. A bit of old fashioned music, a few extremely drunken people, and the dominant smell of strong, cheap booze.

"Why exactly are we here again? We're already in the village.", Karin asked curiously.

"Yes, but a few criminal parts of town and other places are restricted only for official Iwa forces or bounty hunters. Our client has another piece of paper that enables us to enter any part of the city. Since those hills we need to go to later are also restricted, we need those papers.", Deidara explained.

Karin nodded and followed her partners to a rather large table, where a disguised man with a beige robe and a large hat was sitting all by himself.

"Ah, ladies and gentleman, you have arrived at last. And with a few reinforcements I suppose.", the hooded man remarked, nodding towards Gaara's and Matsuri's direction.

"Yes, better safe than sorry.", Naruto answered, while Deidara was a bit weary upon hearing the man talk.

"Indeed. Very well, now for your targets, they have a camp in the Sakihiro hills just a bit east from here. There are at least 20 jonin level ninja, especially profound in Earth Style jutsus. You should recognize them by there brown and beige robes. They reach to the ground.", the man continued in his high-pitched voice.

"The Sakihiro hills, huh?", Deidara asked suspiciously.

"Indeed, it's a restricted area as you might know. You'll need these passing papers to cross the police border.", he told, handing them over the papers.

"Thank you. We will get going then.", Naruto finished, already standing up.

"Take care. This is a dangerous place. You never know which threat might wait for you around the next corner."

Everybody slowly stood up, everyone besides Deidara. He simply sat their, unmoving.

"Is something the matter, sir?", the stranger asked Deidara.

"You know, where I'm coming from, it's common to look each other into the eyes and shake hands if a deal is made. Let's not spit on that tradition, shall we?", Deidara told, raising his head and stretching out his hand.

"Sorry, I'm a bit troubled with touching other people, I'm afraid I have to refuse.", the man told evenly.

"I have to insist, sir. Please, just a little gesture of appreciation.", he countered, leaving his hand like before while the others watched.

"Hey, you don't have to push him...", Naruto started.

"Nono, it's alright. I'm not known for defying other cultures, I suppose I should've known this would happen, ", the man told, recahing out his hand as well while raising his head.

Deidara's face immediately went into a state of recognition after seeing the orange swirled mask, with a simple black hole in the spot where an eye should be.

"Tobi."

"Well Deidara, it's an enormous pleasure to see you here. How are you doing?"

"You were always so easy to fool, you know that, Tobi?", Deidara spoke cockily.

"Hey! This isn't how you greet an old friend, Deidara. Weren't you speaking about culture and manners a few seconds ago?"

"I'm sorry, you're right, of course. I have my own cultural way of greeting someone. It's called **_Boom."_**

Deidara immediately detonated himself and created an explosion throwing his partners and the other people at the bar into the rock walls, while the smoke in the middle of the room spread around.

Deidara, who apparently replaced himself with a clay clone, went to help up his friends and watched the figure in the middle of the room slowly revealed by the smoke, completely unharmed.

"And you, old friend, were always really predictable. A clay clone? Really? Take care of him, guys. We'll see each other again soon.", the man named Tobi told, while disappearing into a strange distortion in the middle of the air.

The other customers of the bar stood up, and transformed themselves into strange, human creatures with white skin and yellow eyes.

"Zetsus! Careful guys, if those overrun you they can really be a pain.", Deidara warned.

The Desert Hunt got itself into a battle stance, careful to not get surprised by the Zetsus that started to cirlce them.

"Guys, those are at least three dozens.", Kankuro spoke wearily.

"I have an idea. Gaara, a tempest!", Naruto ordered.

 **"Fuuton: Tsuisuta no Jutsu! (Wind Style: Twister Jutsu."**

The two Jinchuuriki created a little tornado around them, which threw the Zetsus off their feet and spun them around in the room, together with the bar furninture, while the Desert Hunt members felt a little pull from the vortex.

"Deidara, your turn!", Naruto yelled.

The Bokuton user held out his hand full of numerous little clay bombs, letting them be pulled into the tornado until they formed a white line.

 **"HA!"** , Deidara yelled and detonated the bombs, while Gaara and Naruto directed the wind outwards so the explosion would be further away from them.

The ring of explosion left behind pieces of wood, while the Zetsus were gone, disintegrated from the procimity and force of the explosion.

"Who the hell was that?", Kankuro yelled.

"That was Tobi, the mysterious Akatsuki member I told you about. Those Zetsus are his minions, but I don't where they are coming from.", Deidara replied.

"Quick, we have to get to Han and Roshi, maybe Akatsuki is there as well!", Naruto yelled while everyone nodded and ran out of the pub.

"There, quick, down the street!", Deidara yelled, and the squad followed him.

"How is it you were suspicious of Tobi?", Naruto asked his fellow friend.

"He talked about the Sakihiro hills. That's the place Han and Roshi were the last time I had information about them. Plus, I can recognize that voice from anywhere on this planet. We have to hurry up, they may be already on the hunt for the two."

The Desert Hunt was getting weird looks from the Iwa citizens, partly because of their clothing and partly because of the hurry they seemed to be in.

They reached the outskirts of the main village, until they were intercepted by a few ninja at the border to the Sakihiro hills.

Using the, suprisingly valid, papers the group got from Tobi, they passed into an area with a simple rock ground, and two rather big mountains at both sides of the long pathway.

After about two kilometers, once they past those mountains, they reached a smaller area surrounded by similar giant rocks.

In the middle, straight ahead, was a smaller rock house, with a round roof. It looked as if it came out of a galaxy far, far away.

Two figures walked out. One was a smaller, older man with deep red hair and a very noticable, full beard.

The other one was an unnaturally tall one with a hat similar to the ones the Desert Hunt is already wearing, and has a face mask similar to the one of Kakashi, only that it was read. His tall figure held a kind of cilindric backpack.

"Hey punks, get off my lawn!", the small figure yelled with a raspy, almost hillybilly kind of voice.

"Now Roshi, be a bit more peaceful, would you?", the tall figure, apparently Han, spoke.

"May I ask about the circumstances of your visit, strangers?", Han asked politely, but with a firm voice.

"Yes, of course. My name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, former Konoha-nin, currently Suna-nin and mercenary, and the jailor of the Nine Tails, the Kyuubi."

Both, even the old man, perked up a bit at this information.

"I see, the Nine Tails. I sensed something off about you, punk.", Roshi spoke in his rough vouce.

"Would you stop calling me punk, you old fossile!?", Naruto yelled at the now similarly enraged Roshi.

"Who are you calling old, brat?!", Roshi yelled back while being restrained by Han.

 _"Heh, just like the old times",_ Naruto thought melancholically.

"We should get to the more pressing matters, Naruto-san.", Utakata spoke in his tranquil voice.

Grinding his teeth a bit more, the leader calmed down and started to speak once again.

"Right. The man who just spoke is Utakata, former Kiri-nin and jailor of the Six Tails. The man here with the fake green eyes is Gaara, the current Kazekage and the Jailor of the One Tails. This is Karin, that's Deidara, Kankuro and Matsuri. We are the Desert Hunt and we come to save you."

"Save us from whom?", Han asked.

"The Akatsuki. An organization with the sole destination of capturing you, extracting the Tailed Beasts residing in you, and then using them for god knows what. I'm Deidara, a former member of this organization. We know you are the jailor of the Four and Five Tails. We have a very probable suspicion that the Akatsuki will strike now, and they will come for you. We have set ourselves the goal to unite all the Jinchuuriki into one team, and defeat the Akatsuki once and for all."

Han and Roshi processed the information given by the group slowly.

"So we're just supposed to follow you?", Roshi said with a distrustful tone underlying his sentence.

"Would you stop sounding like we are you're enemy, geez man.", Kankuro cursed.

"What my partner was trying to say is yes, you should follow us because quite frankly, you don't have much of a choice.", Karin told matter-of-factly.

"You will be offered a place among the ranks of Suna, given that you don't seem to be welcome in Iwa anymore.", Gaara added.

"Well, first we have to get out of here. Our friends seem to be as fast in acting out as you told.", Han spoke while looking around him.

The group looked all around onto the mountains and realized that there were the same white Zetsu creatures they had encountered in the pub before.

"Holy fuck, how many are there?", Kankuro asked, immediately drawing his Sasori puppet.

"God dammit, everyone quick, the same way how we went back. Can we use your sand to fly Gaara?", Naruto asked.

"No, it's enough for maybe six, if I want to defend the platform I can take even less.", Gaara replied.

"Why in such a hurry, boys? Nice clothes by the way, who gave you the inspiration?", a mocking voice came from behind.

Everyone turned around to the voices to see Kisame, Itachi and two other Akatsuki members standing in the path they came from, the white Zetsus all the while running towards them.

"It's Hidan and Kakuzu, Itachi and Kisame as well.", Deidara whispered violently.

"Well Deidara, it's nice to see you too again. Come on, let's have a little dance for your blood, hahaha.", the former Yugakure ninja with the white hair laughed.

"Damn guys, what did you do to poor Sasori? Well then, it doesn't matter, we can capture five Jinchuuriki in one strike. It's like christmas!", Kisame laughed while drawing Samehada.

"Shit. I'd prefer not to fight yet. We should rather fight when we have all Jinchuuriki. These people seem to have strengths beyond anyones understanding, we have to be at full power.", Naruto whispered.

"Now Naruto-kun, please don't make this unnecessarily complicated. Not again, if I may add.", Itachi spoke, two tomoe already spinning in his eye.

"Gaara-sama?", Matsuri stuttered a bit frightened. Those looked like very dangerous fighters, five Jinchuuriki are present as well, and at least one thousand Zetsu

"Stay close, Matsuri.", Gaara tried to calm her.

"Let me handle this. _Kokou, I think it's up to us to get out of here save."_

 ** _"_** ** _Of course, bambi. Just say the word."_**

 _"_ _Come on, we want it steaming."_

With incredible speed, a ton of steam left the backpack on Hans back, covering the area in a thick white cloud.

"Everyone, cling to me or someone. **Haaaaa!"**

Out of the steam, the form of the Gobi slowly rose out, with the rest of the Desert Hunt and Roshi on the back of it.

 _"Hold onto me guys!"_

The Gobi ran left, towards one of the mountains where the Zetsus already reached the bottom and were now running on the ground towards the Five Tails.

With impresisve speed, it started to overrun the minions and pumping them into the ground while running up the mountain, until it was hit into the left hind leg by a powerful fire blast, causing the enormous creature to yell out in pain.

"Tsk, pathetic.", the figure known as Kakuzu spoke mockingly while charging a lightning strike towards the stumbling Gobi.

"We have to protect the Five Tails, it's our only chance out **.",** Gaara yelled, opening his gourd and creating a protective wall of sand right where the lightning was about to hit the Gobi.The burst of lightning was stopped by the enormous wall of sand, causing both to dispell.

"There is water from the left!", Matsuri yelled.

Everyone watched the sharkskin warrior riding on a ridiculously big wave of water, taking a large amount of white Zetsus with him while accelrating fast.

Since the Gobi was still staggering and not moving, Roshi started to release a jutsu.

 **"Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Style: Mud Wall!)"**

Roshi pulled the wall up where Kisame was charging from, and threw it completely over the Five Tails, directing the wave of water onto the other side.

As the darkness from the sudden loss of sunlight disappeared, the group saw a half-perfect, blood-red Susanoo, with Itachi standing right in it and casting a weird red projectile, looking similar to a three tomoe Sharingan. Meanwhile, the immortal fighter Hidan was running towards then,

 _"Fox, now it's your turn."_

Naruto immediately released two tails of his jailor, being covered in a thick red chakra cloak, though his changed physical features weren't visible through his mantle.

The Nine Tails jailor began charging his signature ninjutsu, but made something different this time.

"The famous jutsu of the Fourth Hokage. Show me if you're strong enough to perform it, Naruto-kun.", came the challenging line from the Uchiha traitor.

"I can't just perform it, I have improved it. Dad forgot one thing in this jutsu to make it perfect. Now, stay still like a good guinea pig.", Naruto yelled back.

 **"Yasaka no Magatama! (Yasaka Beads!)"**

Naruto jumped off the now slowly balanced Gobi with immense force towards the projectile thrown by the Susanoo, and slammed the sphere he hold into it.

 **"Fuuton: Bijuu Rasenshuriken! (Wind Style: Tailed Beast Rasenshuriken!)"**

Striking the Yasaka Beads from the side, Naruto had to struggle because of the immense power behind it. Though, he managed to redirect it and the small white red shining sphere towards the ground were Hidan ran.

As soon as it hit the ground directly next to Hidan, it created two explosions. One with a three tomoe Sharingan symbol from the Yasaka Beads, and one vibrant blue one from the Rasenshuriken.

 _"Impressive. I can't even see how many hits are delivered to Hidan.",_ the genious of Konoha thought.

The airborne Naruto quickly disappeared in a yellow flash and reappeared on the back of the already running Gobi.

Landing, he fell onto one knee, breathing heavily. Gaara and Utakata supported him so he could stand again.

"Ok guys, different plan. We have to be quicker with our next allies, we can't risk that a single one of them is captured by Akatsuki. **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)"**

His hundreds of clones stood all over the back of the Tailed Beast, some with chakra so they wouldn't fall off.

"Ok guys, listen carefully. I want you to scatter into all directions to create a diversion. Three of you will go to a special place though. You two, run to Kumogakure and search for Yugito Nii and Killer Bee, bring them home, but try to be as quiet doing so as possible.

You there, you will go to Takigakure, search for Fuu and bring her back home. Everyone else just run for any village that comes to your mind and stay low."

The Narutos nodded and jumped off of the beast onto the ground, running with the speed of sound, though still slower than the Gobi.

"Guys, we'll do the hardest task. Hey Han, we have to get to Kirigakure.", Naruto told Han/Kokou.

"What do we want in Kiri?", Roshi asked.

"Heh, we'll free the old Mizukage, and jailor of the Three Tails."

The clones really did a great job. They ran away into any civilized place known by man, hid themselves away and then disappeared again.

Though, any civilzed place known to man DID include one rather unliked one.

It included Konoha as well.

One of the unsuspecting clones was walking through the main part of the village towards a more criminal district, so he could disappear in a dark ally. Before reached the district, he was hearing a large crowd coming from the side.

Right next to him was a mass of civilians circling a group of ninja which was currently leaving towards the village.

The leader of this group, a certain blond busty woman, located the clone and walked towards it with a furious glare.

"You there, Suna-nin, are you a mercenary?", Tsunade asked the clone.

"Yes milady, indeed I am."

"Are you good?"

"The best."

"Good, I need to hire you. There is a job that needs to be done."

"Our representative, Sabaku no Kankuro, is in the bar "The Red Cloud". Currently, we're on a mission, but be there in three days, than we'll be back."

Tsunade nodded, and directed the group just to the way the clone came from.

The clone quickly ran into an unhabited ally, and dispelled itself into a puff of smoke.

The memory of the clone flooded back to the real Naruto, who was wide eyed now.

"Guys, apparently one of my clones encountered a wannabe client.", Naruto spoke.

"Who is that?", Karin asked.

Naruto smirked a bit at the irony of being needed by Konoha now.

"It seems the Hokage needs to have a dirty deed done."


	17. Target: Kirigakure

_A/N: Hello guys, welcome to the newest chapter of 'Kid of the Hunt'._ _A few replies to your comments:_

 **Luciendar: Yeah, to be honest, I expected the story to proceed a little faster than how it actually does now. I underestimated the mass of storytelling I'd have to do (or rather I'd want to do) until Tsunade and Naruto actually meet each other again. I have to give you that my tags are rather misleading for the majority for the story, and I'll update that. I'll write it into the summary that there will be comfort and romance later on, because it will. You're correct though, until now it was rather adventure.**

 **Vince Basile Jr: I'm thrilled that you're so excited about my story. Don't worry, the Naruto and Tsunade moments will slowly come now.**

 **OmegaRealism** ** _:_ Wow, please calm down.**

 **So, first things first, I can inform you that I am heterosexual. Not that I'm offended, but you know, just clearing things out.**

 **About the fourth wall: I don't quite get where you get the notion from that this is the one and only reason that my work sucks for you. In _The Three Musketeers,_ Alexandre Dumas talked about 'the reader' as well, and it is one of the best books ever written (in my opinion). Regardless of my opinion, it definetely is a highly popular book, there's no way to deny that.**

 **Then there is Deadpool, which was a huge sucess and brought the classic funny Marvel humor to a new level. How? By adding more pop culture to the equation and breaking the fourth wall.**

 **Yeah, perhaps I'm not doing it perfectly, but this is the first story that I'm writing which is getting this long. If you don't like my work, or rather despise it with every fiber and every cell of your being, then I'm sorry to hear that, but then don't read my story. It's as simple as that.**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After the group, now plus Han and Roshi, were able to escape the Akatsuki ambush and reached the spot Dedara's bird landed, they knew they had to leave. It was practically impossible that there wasn't anyone that noticed the fight happening. At least the Gobi was probably spotted by someone for sure.

The next destination would be Kiri. Since the Desert Hunt, which now already counted seven members, plus Gaara and Matsuri, would be unable to all mount the clay bird of Deidara or the sand platform of Gaara, Naruto decided to call a few horses for the rest of the team. Gaara and Matsuri still travelled on the platform, while the former Akatsuki stuck to his creature.

Handing over the new mantles and hats with the kanji for "ape" and "deer" to their new comrades, the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki asked:

"So, that was a rather unusual intiation. I still suggest that you follow us and join the Desert Hunt. Do you want to?"

"Well, it's not like we can return home now with those crazy bastards purging there.", Roshi said.

"Indeed. It's time we see more of this world yet again, and I think we finally found the proper company. I would happily join you.", Han followed in his peaceful voice.

"Haha, sweet! Hey guys, we have new members!", Naruto yelled in joy.

Kankuro and Deidara smirked, Karin and Matsuri smiled while Utakata and Gaara simply looked a bit pleased, though silently of course.

"Come on, we should hop onto our horses, I'll tell you everything you need to know."

The now newly dressed men nodded and hopped on their respective mounts, riding off. Gaara, Matsuri and Deidara were already airborne, although flying low enough to listen to the ongoing conversation.

"So, I will fill you in into our current task. As you know, we will unite all the Jinchuuriki into one team. I have send one clone to Taki to speak with Fuu, the Seven Tails Jinchuuriki. Two clones are heading towards Kumo to talk to Yugito Nii and Killer Bee, container of the Two and Eight Tails.", Naruto summarized.

"How do you know all of them?", Han inquired.

"Heh, that's my cue. I am Deidara, I'm a missing-nin from Iwa, and former member of the Akatsuki. After major disagreements, I dropped out of the organization and strolled through the Elemental Nations, being a hired blade here and there. I encountered Naruto a few weeks ago when he and Kankuro offered me a job. Everything kind of went its way, until we started our quest now.", the Iwa runaway summarized.

Han and Roshi nodded and processed the information.

"You trust her?", Roshi asked the leader, nodding towards Naruto.

Naruto, like everyone else, tried to contain his laughter, while Deidara's smiling face dropped sub zero.

Han simply facepalmed and shook his head. 'I can't believe this senile man.'

"What is it?", Roshi asked his companion with a hint of frustration.

"Hey Naruto, I think we got out of there pretty well, don't you think eight Jinchuuriki are more than enough?", the clay user asked, cracking his knuckles mencaingly.

"Damn it, I like 'em feisty.", Roshi continued with a lustful grin.

"I'm not a woman, you fucking idiot!", Deidara yelled at the old man in anger. The nerve of him.

"Well is that my fault? You have better and longer hair than most women from Iwa. If you'd cut it off, it would be a bit more obvious!", Roshi yelled back with as much.

"Tsk, moron.", Deidara spoke again, ascending a bit to avoid any other word spoken by their new ally. He started dodging Naruto's eagle, who was currently trying to bite off the streak that was covering Deidara's eye.

"God damn it Naruto, call back your little pidgeon.", Deidara yelled, waving around with his arms.

 _'Who are you calling pidgeon, miss?',_ though only a laughing Naruto could hear him speak.

 ** _"He does have something feminine.",_** Kyuubi mused as well.

"Come down here and say 'moron' again, sissy!", the Four Tails container shouted.

"Would you keep your voice low, Roshi? Besides, these people just saved us, show some graitude.", Han interjected the fight.

Mumbling a bit to himself, the old man stopped arguing any further and simply rode further down the countryside.

Trying to regain his composure, the leader replied: "Yes, I trust Deidara, very much so. Now, we will go to Kirigakure, because we can't simply talk to this person and get him to come with us. It's Yagura Karatachi, the Yondaime Mizukage and jailor of the Three Tails. As you may already know, Yagura was responsible for the bloody and brutal Bloodline Wars in Kiri, until his system was abolished and overthrown by the rebels under Mei Terumi.

First of all, he is, if he is alive, still a Jinchuuriki, and therefore deserves our protection. No matter who or where you are, the Akatsuki will come after the Bijuu nevertheless.

Second of all, my cousin Karin had a suspicion regarding him, since his cruelty and bloodline purge were so sudden."

"So, if he is alive, we are going to plan a jailbreak?", Han asked.

"Very likely, yes. The Kiri prison citadell is like a fortress, guarded by elite ANBU. We should avoid open conflict there. If we find out that he indeed is still a prisoner, than we can go through a secret entrance I know. If we're lucky, it leads us directly one floor above the high security ward.", Utakata replied.

"Then we should discuss the details when we reached Kiri.", Naruto concluded, to which he only received nods.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _The next day, Sunagakure no sato_

"Extra! Extra! The Five Tailed Demon in an ambush by unknown attackers! The Gobi ran away, without any trace!", shouted the screeching voice of a newspaper salesman over the crowded marketplace.

"What the hell is that?", came the voice of a busty blonde woman.

She took one of the newspapers and read the front page, showing the Gobi from a faraway perspective. Only through it's big form it was still visible. Next to it, barely visible, was the form of a Susanoo.

"It's true Tsunade, my spies confirmed it. That was Akatsuki, that Susanoo is clearly Itachi's.", Jiraiya commented next to her.

"So they attacked the Gobi container, huh? Did they manage to capture it?", the blonde questioned.

The spy master shook his head.

"No, he was living together with the Four Tails Jinchuuriki, and they both escaped. But they weren't alone, they had help. From quite a lot of people. One of my agents said that he felt one of them was using a Yoko's chakra, but we don't know who he is. He wasn't able to come too close to the fight, it was massive.", Jiraiya continued.

"Is it possible... you know... that the Kyuubi has been resealed? Since you don't know who this is?"

"I would really love to be able to deny that, Tsunade."

Nodding, Tsunade started to walk towards the hotel they've been staying at with an uneasy feeling. Akatsuki was starting to act, and it wouldn't be too long until they were on the hunt for the Kyuubi as well.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Kirigakure no sato_

The landscape, mostly hidden away by thick layers of mist, slowly revealed itself to the group of ninja. The sight of the numerous guards standing at the gate or on the towers really gave a solid impression of the militaristic village Kiri has always been, with and without Yagura as the Mizukage.

Gaara lowered his sand cloud to the ground and recalled the material back into his gourd. Deidara landed his bird to jump off of it, and ordered it to fly a few rounds. Naruto sent away the horses as well.

"Utakata, please show us this secret entrance you talked about.", Naruto spoke.

"Of course, follow me."

The group started to walk around the village for a few minutes. The citadell was located on the other side of the village, close to the outer border.

"Let's stay a bit further away and walk through these bushes here, we shouldn't get spotted by the guards.", Utakata suggested.

Rushing through the rather thick flora, the group proceeded to walk around the main village of Kiri.

Upon reaching a highly vegetated spot, Utakata went into the middle to lift off a carpet which looked like normal grass. Beneath it was a metal plate, as if it was covering the canalization.

"How did you know that?", Kankuro asked curiously.

"I built this tunnel myself.", Utakata spoke while lifting off the plate.

"It's connected to a ventilation shaft. During my last prisonbreak, when they tried to move me back to my cell after I managed to reach the floor above, I was able to climb into it and started to work on that tunnel out. No one ever really controls these."

"Wow, impressive."

"Ok guys, we shouldn't go there with the whole group, that's rather counterefficient. It'll be me, Karin and Utakata who go in there. You stay here and guard this entrance. Hopefully we will come out of here again. If you are suspicious that a bigger fight might happen here, then cover up this place and go.", Naruto ordered his partners.

Everyone nodded, then the Nine Tails turned to the Six Tails Jinchuuriki.

"Lead the way."

"With pleasure."

Karin, Naruto and Utakata entered the dark tunnel, and Kankuro closed off the entrance behind them.

The trio crawled through the thin and dark passage, until they reached a dead end.

"Give me a second."

The bubble user pushed against the wall at the dead end, until it gave in and a few rays of light illuminated the narrow path the three were currently waiting in.

"Follow me. Karin, put this piece of metal back into this place again."

The three left, and the young woman closed the entrance behind her.

Following the light, the Desert Hunt finally reached the exit of the ventilation shaft and slowly opened it. They entered a room which seemed to be the control center for air conditioning.

"There's someone coming, hide."

"I told you, I heard something here.", told one of the two Anbu which entered the room.

Naruto immediately dropped himself down from the ceiling, two of his swords unsheathed. The blades were pointing upwards though, in order to hit the two guards unconscious.

The two Kiri ninja felt the presence of an intruder dropping, and immediately jumped out of the way and sheathed one sword each.

"Neko, try to get around him and call for help.", the one with the dog mask ordered.

Naruto intercepted the way of the the ANBU, while the other tried to leave from the other side simultaneously.

The Inu Anbu felt a strong force tugging at his legs, and looked down to find a pair of yellow chains already wrapped tightly around his legs, while they were working their way around his arms and through his mouth as well after his masked was pulled off by another chain.

He was pulled into the wall, unable to speak from the chain in his mouth, struggling to break free.

The other one swung his swords at Naruto a few times, who simply blocked the hits with his hilt. The noise of metal clashing against metal would probably attract more unwelcome visitors.

Suddenly, he found himself more and more unable to move, while his opponent simply lowered his blades.

He was caught in a bubble prison created by Utakata, unable to make any noise as well.

Naruto walked towards the Anbu restrained by Karin's chains and pressed his blade against the guards neck.

"Grasshopper, let him speak."

The readhead nodded and loosened the grip on the head, enabling the Anbu to speak.

"What do you want?", was the immediate question.

"What do you want?", Naruto asked with the same deep voice.

"Let me free, immediately!"

"Let me free, immediately! Alright, make him unconscious, Grasshopper. Slug, make the other one unconscious as well."

Karin nodded and began strangling the guard with a chain until said guard was out cold, while Utakata cut off the oxygen from the bubble until the other guard was in the same state.

"Good, now drop them down."

Both jutsus dissolved and the limp bodies of the guards simply dropped to the floor.

"Utakata, take the clothes of that one, I'll take his.", Naruto said, crouching in front of the Neko Anbu.

"But what about me?", Karin questioned.

"I know. The Godaime Mizukage is a woman. You can perform a Henge. I'll show you what she looks like. **Henge!"**

Utakata was bathed in a cloud of smoke. When it faded, a stunning woman with long, brown hair, emerald eyes and a tight blue dress that was doing a poor job at hiding her legs and her rather large... _appendages._ Karin nodded while inspecting the womans figure closely.

"Those Anbu won't fall for just a Henge guys.", Naruto stated.

"Actually, I think they will. I can recreate her chakra signature and nature from her looks, no one should be suspecting something.", Karin replied, performing the Henge herself while Utakata dissolved his transformation again.

"Let's try it then. **Henge!** "

Naruto and Utakata both adapted the look from their victims and started to put on their clothes.

"Ok then. Let me do the talking, and then this should be an easy ride. We should hide our chakra, we can't risk someone suspecting us.", the leader spoke, just finishing with putting on the Anbu clothes and the cat mask.

He quickly restrained the Anbu, now only in their underwear, by their hand, feet as well as covering their eyes and mouth, and stuffed them into the ventilation shaft just behind their way out, so that they could still leave afterwards.

Utakata put on the dog mask and said:

"Follow me, the high-security tract is just downstairs."

Naruto nodded and followed him outside of the room, Karin/The Mizukage following closely behind them.

They were walking through the narrow dark grey metallic path, passing by the lost souls who have been sitting here a long time, and will continue to do so even longer. The guards bowed down upon seeing the Mizukage, but didn't react any further.

The trio walked towards the stairway and descended further down into the high security tract.

In front of the entrance to the room, the two guards intercepted their walk.

"What is your business here, Neko?"

"Inmate transfer, order by the Mizukage herself, as you can see.", Naruto spoke in the actual Neko's voice, while Karin/The Mizukage stepped towards the Anbu guards with her head high and a dominant gaze plastered on her face.

The guards in front of the door looked at each other, but then nodded and opened up the door to the little area.

The area looked basically the same as the regular prison, though the doors were noticeably thicker, heavier and more stable than the others.

Thankfully, each door had a name tag on it.

'Let's just hope that he's still here.'

The people were noticeably stronger than most of the others residing here. Some were meditating, some training, some simply looked at the wall.

There was one empty cell. It read 'Utakata'.

As if God blessed them on this day, one of the cells read 'Yagura Karatachi'.

"Open this cell", Naruto/Neko ordered the two following Anbu guards, which complied.

Inside the sinister, singular room was a man not older than 25, with extremely dirty green hair, clothes that look like they haven't been washed in years, purple eyes that held nothing but emptiness and insanity. His whole body was a shivering and quivering mess.

"There he is. He is laughing, he is mocking me, the great Mizukage. Don't you hear him. He will come, he will call the ultimate destruction to feast on this world, and leave nothing behind. We have to get rid of the sinners, the bastards, the unpure. They ruin this wonderful world. Kill them, in exchange he will let us be. Please, don't let him call it. The end of this world will come, ten tails it has, each will cause despair."

Everyone listened to the monologue of the fallen leader a bit, until Naruto/Neko proceeded to speak again.

"He is strangled, good. Just please get him to shut up already and we'll free you from this nut job."

The Anbu went over to Yagura to stuff a piece of cloth into his little mouth, grabbing onto the face which looked more like the one of a boy than that of a man.

"You can shut me up, but the truth will mmmpfh!!", the former Mizukage tried to speak, until his voice was extinguished by the piece of fabric.

"Thank you. Inu, blindfold him.", was Natutos/Nekos order.

Utakata/Inu nodded and put on a blindfold, while pulling up the inmate by his armpit.

Naruto quickly grabbed Yagura by the armpit and started dragging him outside, while Karin followed silently.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Kirigakure Prison Citadell - main floor_

"Ugh, I hate those inspections. There's nothing more depressing than a little place cramped up with a bunch of criminals.", spoke the voice of a gorgeous woman.

"Don't worry, Mizukage-sama, it will be over quickly."

"Yeah, but still Chojuro, it is unnecessary. No one from these high security prisoners is doing anything remotely interesting and suspicious ever. Even Yagura is just sitting there voicing out some new delusion that comes to his mind.", the Mizukage finished exasperatedly, entering the stairway, walking towards the high security tract.

"Mizukage-sama!", a guard yelled from behind.

"What is it?"

"There is a lift now in the prison, I think this would be more comfortable for you. No reason to walk down that many floors."

"Finally something good. Alright let's take the lift."

The Mizukage and her bodyguard Chojuro, a boy with white hair, glasses and a rather large sword strapped on his back, stepped into the lift and dropped down to the last floor.

Once they met the guards, she spoke "Hello, I'm here for an inspection of the prisoners, please open the doors."

Even though they had masks on, the way the two guards looked at each other made it very clear that they were beyond confused.

"Is something the matter, gentlemen?", the Mizukage pressed on.

"But miss, you were just here to move an inmate, Yagura Karatachi."

"Now I wasn't, what the hell are you talking about?"

The guard seemed to be in panic now.

"Quick, lock this door!"

The other guard nodded while the first one was running towards the alarm bell and started ro ring it loudly.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Naruto, Utakata, Yagura and Karin, who were still walking towards the main floor by stairs, were clearly able to hear the echo of the alarm bell.

"Quick, the bag! They know Yagura is missing and who we are. Karin, drop your Henge and stuff a bag over your head as well."

Utakata and Naruto took the big bag from Karin and completely stuffed Yagura inside of it, with Naruto now holding the shaking bag as if he was Santa Claus. Karin was back in her Desert Hunt uniform minus the hat, and stuffed a little bag over her head. Utakata grabbed her under the armpit and dragged her upstairs towards the exit while she held her arms behind her back.

They saw a few guards running downstairs towards the high security tract to find out what's going on, since no one knew anything yet.

Naruto tried to open the door to the floor they entered from.

"Locked fron the outside. We don't have time to break it, and there is no one who is suspecting us yet. Quick, towards the main exit!"

The group went further upstairs and stood in the hallway towards the main exit, only to see it locked and guarded by two Anbu.

"Halt, you there! Who are you carrying in that bag? No one is allowed to leave."

From sensing their opponents alone, Karin summoned a few chakra chains and threw the Anbu into the wall, knocking them unconscious.

"Let's switch masks, maybe it'll buy us some time.", Utakata suggested, and both immediately put up a new mask.

The three left through the main exit into a large yard, only to notice approximately three dozens of Anbu agents already surrounding them.

"Well, so I guess you're the ones who strolled into the prison as me?", came the Mizukage's voice from behind.

The three turned around, Karin dropping the bag on her head and quickly pulling on her hat again.

"Well, Mizukage-sama, it's an honour to meet you."

"Yo Naruto, I see you're in trouble. Need a hand.?", Deidara spoke through the communication seal.

"Forget it, too dangerous. Just prepare to leave.", was Naruto's swift and quiet response.

"You have caused a lot of trouble, you know that. Freeing a war criminal is punishable by death, or at least a life sentence."

"Heh, trouble has this weird way of finding me everywhere I go."

"I beg you to see reason, Mizukage-sama.", Karin started "I have reasons to believe that your former Mizukage is under the control of some external force. His sudden change of rule is too sudden to be simply caused by different views, he had to be influenced by someone."

"Even then, young lady, he would be a citizen of Kirigakure, and not be taken hostage by you. Drop his body and show yourself. What reason do you have to take him with you?"

"I'm afraid we can't do that, Mizukage-sama. **Tools of the Hunt: Rhino's Stampede**.", Naruto whispered.

The ground was shaking, and from just outside the village, a horde of rhinos was overrunning the gate, through the streets, straight towards the prison. The fence was easily taken down by the animals.

Everything that was able to be heard were the cries of the Anbu trying to dodge the sheer amount of rhinos, and the calls of the mighty animals themselves.

"Quick guys, jump on one of them."

The trio jumped on a rhino each, aiming towards the outer fence of the prison to escape.

"Fox, they're catching up!", Karin yelled, pointing behind him.

Indeed, the Anbu soldiers were able to jump on the rhinos backs themselves, and were now jumping from back to back towards the group.

"Hold him, Slug! I will take care of them!", Naruto spoke, throwing the thrashing bag with Yagura towards Utakata and jumping back towards the six Anbu soldiers who were already there.

Naruto unsheathed three swords, stuffing one in his mouth with the cloth covering his face, and took the other ones into his arms.

 **"Kitsune no kenae wo kurae!"**

"What the hell is that brat doing there?", Roshi is yelling while a part of the horde of the grey animals, which Naruto directed towards the others, passes them.

"I don't know, but we have to help him.", Kankuro yelled. He started to run towards the horde with the others, besides Deidara who started to fly on his bird and Gaara and Matsuri who were on the sand cloud.

Naruto deflected the blows that were still delivered towards him from threw sides simultaneously.

The Jinchuuriki noticed that a fourth Anbu was trying to jump behind him, so he knew he had to act.

Angling his two swords that were in his hands so that they would lead together in a single spike, he jumped towards the Anbu standing right from him while performing a drilling motion.

The Anbu was able to land a stab through the drill, but the momentum of Naruto threw away his sword.

Naruto then stopped his motion and kicked the soldier into his ribs with full force, right off the rhino and onto the ground. His body spun a few times and laid still. The other rhinos which originally were behind them were already sent away by the wildlife master so he wouldn't need to take care of more Anbu.

Naruto threw a kunai towards a rhino were two Anbu were standing on. With nearly perfect reaction time, they caught it in midair, only to notice it wasn't a regular knife.

Briefly blinded by a yellow flash of light, the Anbu were unable to dodge the incoming punches that threw them off the animals right onto the ground.

'Three more to go.'

The three tried to descend upon their opponent in a joined sword stirke.

 **"Fuuton: Daitoppa! (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!)"**

Pushed away by the strong gust of wind, the Anbu all landed on their feet, but weren't able to catch up on the horde anymore.

Meanwhile, the other part of the horde, where Han, Roshi and Kankuro were standing on was carefully cleared out from Anbu.

From the sand cloud above, Matsuri threw out her rope dartsto pull an Anbu of a rhino and throw him away from his partners.

Kankuro sent out his Kabuto puppet which won a fight sword vs chakra scalpel against one Anbu. Once the sword was flying away, the puppet pushed down the agent and off his current mount.

Han and Roshi were creating tremors through the ground, pushing the rhinos, besides those they were standing on, and therefore any remaining Anbu off of their feet.

The animals that Naruto sent to pick up Han, Roshi and Kankuro joined them then, with said people riding on it.

"Naruto dude, that was fucking awesome!", Kankuro yelled while laughing.

Naruto breathed and laughed, too.

"Indeed, and it was a total sucess. We have him guys. We should be complete."

The group rode back towards their house, a new possible member just with them.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Sunagkaure no sato - The next day_

The group, getting quite a few odd looks while riding rhinos, reached their house the next morning.

Fortunately, three figures stood in front of their house, waiting for them.

One was a man with platinum blonde hair, tanned skin, sunglasses and white clothing. He had multiple swords equipped and a Kumo headband.

The other was a girl with green hair, sun like orange eyes and a tan similar to the mans one, although a bit weaker. She wore a white dress and a red cylinder on her back.

The other girl had blonde hair, a pair of blue eyes similar to Naruto's original ones, and black and grey ninja armor. She wore a Kumo headband as well.

"Yo I think it's Mr. Nine, come here and join my rhyme.", the man started rapping.

"Uhh... does he always talk like that?", Naruto asked.

"Yes.", the Kumo girl replied in an exapserated sigh.

"I suppose you're Killer Bee, Yugito Nii and Fu?"

When he saw the group nodding he started to speak:

"We'll have to skip the introductions for a second, we have someone we have to take care of quickly. Let's go into the house."

The group followed Naruto, carrying the bag with Yagura again, to one of the bedrooms.

They unpacked the former Mizukage and took of his blindfold and the piece of cloth stuffed in his mouth.

"You imbeciles, you will regret that. He will come for you, hahahaha, he'll kill you, without any mercy."

"Karin, see what's going on with him."

"Of course."

Karin felt her way through the chakra nature of the young man.

"I feel a strong, prideful and young chakra. I suppose that's his. There is an incredibly evil and ancient chakra, I suppose that's the Three Tails. Hm, wait, there is something else. It's very little, very faint."

"What is it?"

"It's strange. I sense a little chakra nature from his brain, but it's totally different from the other two. It's vengeful, spiteful, and angry. And it's just in his brain... Of course! He is under a Genjutsu!"

"Under a Genjutsu? But how, he was in prison."

"It's from the outside somewhere. A powerful illusion, barely noticeable from outside. No one suspected that he was under a Genjutsu since he was slowly going crazy anyway. **Genjustu Kai!"**

Yagura's eyes widened immediately and he cried out in fear, cowering back to the head of the bed while gripping his hair tightly, as if he was trying to pull it out.

He was having a panic attack and a seizure at once, thrashing around him and sobbing painfully, until he just stopped and breathed heavily.

"Hey, Yagura. Yagura, can you hear me?", Naruto tried.

The little man turned around and looked Naruto straight into the eye.

"W-w-w-who are you? What d-d-do you want from me?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, I'm the jailor of the Nine Tails. We just saved you from the prison in Kiri and dispelled the Genjutsu that was placed on you."

"P-p-prison? I'm the Mizukage, W-w-why would I be in prison!?"

"You're not the Mizukage. You have declared war on the bloodline families and were overthrown by Mei Terumi, who is the new Mizukage.", Utakata replied.

"I'm n-n-n-not Mizukage? Oh god, all these things I've seen."

"What were they?"

"A monster. It had ten tails, a big red eye with black rings. It brought destruction on this world. The moon looked like its eye, everyone was asleep. I fell asleep too, and I saw just saw robes red clouds all around me. Y-y-you, I saw you, laughing at me!", Yagura stuttered, pointing at Deidara.

"Me? Red Clouds? Hold on, someone from Akatsuki put a Genjutsu on him! It was probably Tobi, that bastard has his way with stuff like this. This vision, this monster, I don't know what it is, but when it's actually something Tobi made you go through, than this might be the plan of Akatsuki. To summon some monster that destroys the Elemental Nations.

Yagura, listen, and you three newbies can listen as well. My name is Deidara. That people you saw in your dream, with the black robes and red clouds is the Akatsuki. They want to extract all the Bijuu from the Jinchuuriki. I'm pretty surry this monster with ten tails has something to do with the other beasts."

Naruto shook his head, and spoke in a deep voice.

 **"People, this monster the Three Tails is talking about is the Ten Tails, the Juubi. The Rikudo Sennin originally created the Ten Tails, but split it up into the Nine Tailed Beasts you know today. I suppose these people have found a way to connect all nine of us again to this creature. It is a being of superior malevolence and terror, it will not stop wrecking havoc until this entire world is reduced to ashes. You must not let it be summoned upon this world."**

All the other Jinchuuriki shook their head as well, and spoke.

 **"Gaara and me won't back down."**

 **"Yugito and me won't either."**

 **"This is personal for us. Yagura and me won't stop until the Akatsuki is annihilated**."

 **"Roshi and I will reduce them to ashes as well."**

 **"Han and me will create a world breaking stampede to stop these people."**

 **"Utakata and me will drown them in our might."**

 **"Fuu and I will pierce them into the ground.."**

 **"Killer Bee and I will strangle them, one on each tentacle."**

Every Jinchuuriki took back control from the demons and Naruto spoke again.

"Yagura, Killer Bee, Yugito and Fuu, from this day forward you are part of our family. This is the Desert Hunt, and I'm its kid, Naruto. We will ensure that not one of us will leave the realm of the living for now. For now, we stay low. Train, meditate, earn money, improve on everything. When the day comes, and it will, Akatsuki will be there. They will be prepared, they will give their everything. But we will, too. We have the strongest entities from this world with us. We have the wildlife with us, and they are alone. I welcome you all. We lack a few clothes, but Kankuro will give you yours tomorrow in the morning.

Yagura, you can rest. Try to calm down, catch your breath. We are here to help you, don't forget that.", Naruto told to Yagura, who looked into nothing, bit nodded slightly.

"Kankuro, maybe it's time to find some work. From now on, we're back on active duty.", he told the puppet user, who nodded and walked away towards the pub.

"Do whatever you please, but stay ready if there's any trouble. It will come soon.

Gaara, what will you do? You won't do any mercenary jobs I suppose."

"Indeed, I won't. Me and Matsuri will restart our regular work as well. I have a lot of paperwork to do because of our new ninja. Please stay cautious regarding Yagura, we're in trouble if Kiri finds out. I can play the stupid and tricked one if it comes out, but I doubt they'll buy it. As soon as the Akatsuki return, contact me immediately."

Naruto nodded, thanked the two and said his goodbyes.

"Killer Bee, Yugito, Fuu, make yourselves at home... wait, did you get here without any problems?"

"Yes, the Raikage is a close friend of ours, he was supportive of our decision to tackle these problems and not bring unnecessary fights to Kumo.", Yugito spoke.

"I'm a quite independent ninja of Takigakure, I was allowed to go as well."

"Wow, I'm impressed, perfect. You can search for a room and decorate it as you please. We are a mercenary family, so you can take jobs with us together. You will get the hang of it quickly."

They nodded, and everyone left to do their own thing.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _With Kankuro_

The puppet user walked into the bar, and was hit shoulder to shoulder from Akira, the leader of the Abyss.

'Don't give him the pleasure to piss you off Kankuro, just walk away.'

"Hey Kankuro!", a middle aged man yelled from a table were he was sitting with other people, drinking more than enough, laughing and joking.

"Yeah, what is it Sekiro?"

"You came in here with rhinos I saw. Did this youngblood you got yourselves find them and made them your mounts?"

Kankuro laughed, sat on the table, took a sip of sake and replied:

"Yeah, you won't believe it. That guy isn't even 18, and he tamed rhinos, rats, eagles and every other animal you can think of. He fought dozens of Chunin and Jonin level ninja, all by himself."

Now he had everyone's attention in the bar. The people quickly surrounded the table, sitting and standing, and listened to the prodigy mercenary. Kankuro saw that, among the mass of people, was a group of Konoha-nin, led by the person he remembered to be the Fifth Hokage. She was also listening intently.

"Woah, what? That guy sounds ridiculously strong. But anyone can fight. Is he good at the jobs your doing?"

Taking another sip, ths brother of the Kazekage commenced to speak.

"Alright lads, I'll give you Kankuro's honest opinion.

You ask me, can this new captain, promise a life of prizes, plunder and adventure?

Aye! Of all the hired blades strolling around Sunagakure, he ranks amongst the most clever. There was a time where I thought of myself the deadliest mercenary of the Sand.

But this man... is a fearsome dog, he feeds off trouble and turmoil. I've seen him fight off a squad of elite Anbu, like it was nothing. He's fighting like a devil, dressed as a man.

And he's a caddy one! Knows his way around every crack and crevice of this land.

...so people if it's prizes and plunder you want, then the Kid of the Hunt is your man.

Only, don't meddle in his private affairs. For there is more mystery at that man..."

Kankuro finished the sentence, looking into Tsunade's eyes.

"...than even I dare ask."

 _A/N: Hey guys, hope you liked that chapter. Yeah, this speech from Kankuro was entirely copied, but I loved it so much I judt had two._

 _Comment please, and stay tuned for the next chapter._


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